By Jenny W. Hsu 
 

Oil prices made meager gains in early Asian trade on Thursday on expectation that U.S. crude production would be trimmed and pre-Thanksgiving settlements.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in January traded at $43.25 a barrel at 0334 GMT, up $0.21 in the Globex electronic session. January Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange rose $0.06 to $46.23 a barrel.

On Wednesday, the Energy Information Administration reported U.S. crude inventories grew 1 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 20. The figure was below the 2.6 million-barrel growth estimated by industry group American Petroleum Institute.

Data also showed U.S. production of crude slid by 17,000 barrels a day to 9.165 million barrels, compared with the previous week, but the four-week average daily production of 9.173 million barrels was still 144,000 barrels above the same period last year.

"This clearly has not been enough to rebalance the U.S. market, let alone the global one," said Timothy Evans, a Citi Futures energy analyst.

The number of active U.S. oil rigs dropped by nine last week to 555, according to an oil service company Baker Hughes, extending last week's decline. Oil rig count is often seen as a gauge of future productions.

Excess supplies amid tepid demand has sheared oil prices by nearly half since summer last year after the Saudi Arabia-led Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to allow market forces to set prices. The tactic is aimed at defending market share while knock out players who can't compete in a low-priced environment.

At 488.2 million barrels, the U.S. crude stockpiles is at levels unseen in at least 80 years, but some analysts believe the gradual decline in production indicates OPEC's "no-cut" tactic is working.

"We expect inventories to continue to remain low with strong U.S. refinery utilization which was at 92%. U.S. crude production, on the other hand, seems to be continuing its decline. This will be ideal for prices in the longer run and if it continues, we should be seeing global oversupply easing," said Daniel Ang, a Phillip Futures energy analyst.

Moreover, the decline in working oil rigs signals "that prices at current levels will eventually see a fall in U.S. shale production, said ANZ Research.

However, prices remain pressured as the issue of oversaturation appears to be going nowhere as it is believed OPEC will stand fast in the market share battle against non-OPEC members at next week's meeting, by continuing to pump above 30 million barrels a day despite crumbling prices.

"The message is clear--the OPEC will not cut alone. This will severely weigh on prices if there is no change to quotas next week as Iran looks to re-enter the market early next year," said Stuart Ive, a client manager at OM Financial.

Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for December--the benchmark gasoline contract--rose 35 points to $1.3996 a gallon, while December diesel traded at $1.4015, 12 points lower.

ICE gasoil for December changed hands at $432.50 a metric ton, up $3.75 from Wednesday's settlement.

Write to Jenny W. Hsu at jenny.hsu@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 25, 2015 23:15 ET (04:15 GMT)