Oil futures edged higher Monday as market players braced for a week of important economic events, but prices remained range-bound on signals that the world's stored oil was nearing capacity.
December Brent was last up 0.17% at $48.07 a barrel.
U.S. crude futures traded up 0.43% at $44.79 a barrel.
However, many oil experts remained bearish about the outlook for
prices amid increased signals of a widening supply glut which
has already led crude to lose more than half of its value since June
2014.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs wrote in a note: "While our distillate balances suggest that stocks will fall short of capacity, the margins of error are small and the risks high, leaving risks to current crude oil prices and timespreads as skewed to the downside through next spring."
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that unwanted diesel and jet fuel cargoes are backing up outside European ports and taking longer ways around the southern tip of Africa to buy time.
Energy Aspects, a research consultancy, reported that product stocks climbed by 0.6 million barrels per day in the third quarter. It added that higher inventories as well as a mild winter expected for Europe and North America as a result of an El Nino weather event would likely lead to lower refinery production and lower use of crude by refiners.
Because of weak oil prices, investment in the sector is likely to decline further next year after slipping in 2015 by more than a fifth, Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said on Monday.
If it happens this way, it will mark "the first time in two decades we will see oil investments declining for two consecutive years and may be an indication for future oil markets," he said at Singapore International Energy Week.
