Oil eases

Singapore

Oil edged lower on Wednesday as expectations of an increase in U.S. inventories weighed on the market, offsetting bullish momentum from output cuts announced by OPEC and other producers.

Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, had dropped 15 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $55.29 a barrel by 0228 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures lost 22 cents, or 0.4 percent, to trade at $52.96 a barrel.

Weekly inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute showed U.S. crude, gasoline and diesel stocks all rose last week. The Energy Information Administration will report its data at 1530 GMT.

Analysts estimated U.S. crude stocks increased by about 2.8 million barrels in the week to Jan. 20."The market will focus on tonight´s EIA data, which is the most likely market moving event in the next 24 hours," said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at Sydney´s CMC Markets.