Oil prices rose slightly for a fifth session in a row today despite a forecast for weaker global demand growth and expectations of rising US crude stocks.
Benchmark oil for April delivery was up 15 cents to $92.69 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The contact rose 48 cents to finish at $92.54 a barrel on the Nymex last night.
Brent crude was down 25 cents to $109.40 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
The Energy Information Administration's supply report will be out later today. Last week it said the US supply of crude was 10.3% above levels a year ago.
US oil production, at more than 7 million barrels a day, is at its highest level since the late 1990s.
Data for the week ending March 8 is expected to show an increase of 2.3 million barrels in crude oil stocks and a drawdown of 1.5 million barrels in petrol stocks, according to a survey of analysts by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.
Sustained concerns about the global economy - highlighted in the latest monthly oil market report from the International Energy Agency - helped keep a lid on crude prices in recent weeks.
The Paris-based IEA lowered its expectations for global oil demand growth in 2013 by 20,000 barrels a day from its prediction last month. It now sees global appetite for crude this year at 90.6 million barrels a day.
"Continued deterioration in the European economic environment, signs of a potential slowdown in China and automatic US government spending cuts combined to suggest that oil demand growth might remain relatively weak in 2013," the IEA said.
"Together, these three economic hits, affecting as they do the world's three largest economies and oil consumers, appear to further delay an elusive turnaround in global economic, and in turn oil demand, growth,'' it added.
