By Miriam Malek 

London--Oil prices edged up Wednesday on bullish data from the American Petroleum Institute and the threat of a strike by oil and gas workers in Norway.

The global benchmark, Brent, was trading up 1.24% at $49.18 a barrel. Its U.S. counterpart, West Texas Intermediate, was trading up 1.21% at $48.43 a barrel.

The American Petroleum Institute estimated a 3.9 million barrel draw in crude stocks late on Tuesday, a larger draw than estimated by market participants surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. The data is only a preliminary estimate, but more authoritative data will be released by the U.S. Department of Energy later Wednesday.

"Attention is now being focused more on the fundamental data again, which point to a tighter oil supply," Germany-based Commerzbank said in a note.

The U.S. data is invigorating the market, which had been looking for signs that U.S. supply was recovering now that prices were higher. Last week, oil services operator Baker Hughes Inc. also reported a decline in active U.S. rig counts, further supporting the narrative of lower U.S. oil production for a longer period.

Also supporting prices is the risk that oil output in Norway, one of Europe's biggest oil producers, could be capped by labor unrest. Up to 7,500 oil and gas workers are threatening to strike starting Saturday if a new wage deal isn't agreed before midnight on July 1.

Norway produced roughly 1.96 million barrels a day in May, or about 2.1% of the world's oil output, according to the International Energy Agency.

But balancing the bullish data were reports that Nigerian oil production was resuming, as the government reportedly implemented a ceasefire agreement with militants in the Niger Delta region. The militants haven't reported an attack on oil infrastructure June 16.

The aftermath of Britain's decision to leave the European Union was having scant effect on prices.

"Once again, oil led the sector as the shock of the U.K. voting to leave the EU wore off," said ANZ Research, noting that market sentiment got a lift after several world leaders, including Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, said that the vote wouldn't have a detrimental impact on their nations' economies.

The pound was holding stable against the dollar, switching between small gains and losses.

Jenny Hsu and

Georgi Kantchev

contributed to this article

Write to Miriam Malek at Miriam.Malek@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 29, 2016 06:31 ET (10:31 GMT)