TOKYO-Oil prices vary on Wednesday with Brent had limited gains and U.S. crude oil trade sideways before the release of official data of the weekly inventories later in the day.
Brent crude (LCOc1) rose 5 cents to $ 46.71 a barrel at 0652 GMT. On Tuesday, the contract settled 30 cents, or 0.6 per cent, at $ 46.66 a barrel.
West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) USA (CLc1) remains unchanged at $ 44.65 a barrel, having traded higher initially and then declined. Fell 59 cents, or 1.3 percent, in the previous session. Next month August Contract will expire at the end of the session Wednesday.
"Trepidative looks a bit crude oil ahead of the weekly inventory report of another, while the strength of the dollar also helped to put nonsense on rallies, "Matt Smith, an analyst at cargo oil and energy data provider tracker Clipper Data, said in a blog post.
The dollar strengthened in Asian trade on Wednesday, as strong US data and rising expectations that the Bank of Japan will muster the additional easing measures sent the dollar index to the highest area in the last four months.
U.S. crude oil rose earlier after an industry group the American Petroleum Institute reported crude oil stockpiles dropped 2.3 million barrels last week. It's just over 2.1 million-barrel draw in a Reuters poll.
For distillation supplies including diesel, the API reported a surprise draw of 484,000 barrels. But it also shows there is an unexpected gasoline build from 805,000 barrels.
The Government's Energy Information Administration (EIA) U.S. stockpile data will issue on Wednesday. If the EIA confirms the withdrawal, it will be the ninth successive week that US crude oil stockpiles have fallen.
The excess supply of oil products, June gasoline output rising China 8.7 percent from last year to 11 million tonnes, or about 3.1 million barrels per day, the Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.
Diesel output last month dropped 4.5 percent from a year ago, while the supply of kerosene soared 10.5 percent, said the Bureau. liquid gas fuel, used mainly in cooking and sometimes for petrochemical raw materials, up 18.9 percent and production of nafta, mainly used for petrochemicals, up 15.7 percent from a year ago.
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