US crude dips below $52.50 on stock build forecast

U.S. crude futures were trading slightly lower on Tuesday, snapping three days of gains, after a preliminary survey showed that U.S. commercial crude stockpiles hit a record high last week.

U.S. crude futures for March delivery lost 38 cents at $52.48 a barrel as of 0018 GMT after the contract finished up $1.17, or 2.3 percent, at $52.86 in the previous session.

A poll of five analysts was taken ahead of weekly inventory reports from industry group the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA), showing U.S. commercial crude oil and gasoline stockpiles likely rose in the week ended Feb. 6.

OPEC, however, forecast on Monday that demand for its oil this year would be much higher than previously thought, as its strategy of letting prices fall to hurt other producers begins to take effect. In a monthly report, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) forecast demand for its oil would average 29.21 million barrels per day in 2015, up 430,000 million barrels per day from its previous prediction.

Citibank on Monday cut its crude price forecasts, saying West Texas Intermediate (WTI) could go as low as the $20 per barrel range before recovering to reach a new equilibrium. The oil market should bottom between the end of the first quarter and beginning of the second quarter this year.