NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Oil futures edged higher Wednesday ahead of a report expected to show a decline in U.S. crude inventories last week.
Crude for June delivery added 24 cents to $84.09 a barrel on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, while the contract for July delivery gained 61 cents to $85.86.
The Energy Department will report on crude inventory at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. Supplies had increased for 10 straight weeks to hit a nine-month high of 356.2 million barrels for the week ending April 2.
"We supposedly had a surplus, but if we get a drawdown the market might really take off," said Jeffrey Friedman, senior market strategist at Lind-Waldock.
On Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said crude inventories fell 741,000 barrels last week, while distillate fuels including diesel declined 3.1 million barrels.
The crude market has tracking moves in U.S. equities, and in recent days has been weighed down by the shutdown of air travel in Europe due to the eruption that spent volcanic ash spewing into the atmosphere.
"Probably 30% of consumption was not being used because no one was flying from Europe. Now they are turning on airports slowly, so that's good," said Friedman.
In addition, the fraud charges filed by U.S. regulators on Friday against investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS 162.06, +2.08, +1.30%) has been "a negative to risk versus no-risk in general," said Friedman of the asset classes impacted.
Oil futures had ended higher on Tuesday after a steep, two-day drop, with the June contract finishing 0.9% higher at $83.85 a barrel.
Ecuadorian energy minister and current OPEC President Germanico Pinto reportedly resigned his position with the Ecuadorian cabinet on Tuesday. But Ecuador was expected to keep its OPEC presidency and the post to be assigned to its next energy minister.
