NYMEX crude dips in Asia ahead of latest U.S. rig count data

Crude oil prices edged down in Asia on Friday with another look at U.S. production levels ahead expected to set the near-term tone.

Energy traders await the release of oil services firm Baker Hughes (NYSE:NYSE:BHI)' weekly rig count on Friday for further indications on U.S. supply levels. Last week, U.S. rigs fell by four to 642, marking the 26th consecutive week of weekly declines.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, WTI crude for July delivery fell 0.30% to $60.59 a barrel.

Overnight, crude futures ticked down on Thursday ending a two-day winning streak, amid a stronger dollar and improved forecasts for global demand in 2015 as a whole.

On the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Brent crude for July delivery dipped 0.59 or 0.90% to 65.11 a barrel. Brent futures pared earlier losses in U.S. afternoon trading after falling to a session-low of $64.51 on Thursday.

In a closely-watched report released on Thursday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said global demand for crude will increase by 1.4 million barrels of day in 2015, a rate approximately 300,000 bpd faster than previous forecasts. The increase could push demand to 94 million bpd, above 2014 levels of 92.6 million bpd. A rise in U.S. gasoline demand and higher car sales in China spurred the growth expectations, the IEA said.

The expected spike in demand could help counter record global supply. In May, OPEC supply levels edged up 50,000 bpd to 31.33 million bpd, as producers in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates continued to pump oil at record monthly rates. The output marked OPEC's highest monthly supply level since August, 2012.

Consequently, OPEC kept its output over 1 million bpd above its official supply target for the third consecutive month.

While global oil supply dropped by 155,000 bpd in May amid lowering non-OPEC production, supply levels still remained approximately 3.0 million bpd higher than last year at this time at 96 million bpd, according to the IEA. In total, the IEA anticipates non-OPEC supply growth to increase by 195,000 bpd for 2015 to 1 million bpd.

Average crude prices in May moved above $60 a barrel, after falling below $45 at the start of the year. Crude futures are still down roughly 40% since peaking in the triple digits 12 months ago.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said crude stockpiles last week fell by 6.8 million bpd. The draw came amid strong demand among gasoline refineries nationwide, which increased its storage capacity to 94.6%. On a global level, however, outages and delays at gasoline refineries in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, India, Brazil and Colombia have helped crude prices stabilize.

"Short-term imbalances in the global refining industry appear to be supporting oil prices - whether directly for products or more indirectly for crude - in the face of a lingering supply overhang, the latest available data suggest," the IEA said in the report.

"These imbalances could go some way towards resolving an apparent disconnect between crude prices and fundamentals: on the one hand, prices appear to have stabilized after staging a partial recovery earlier this year, and the contango in crude futures has narrowed; on the other hand, inventory builds continue amid signs of persistent oversupply."