WTI consolidates overnight gains, holds above $49.00 mark

WTI crude oil prices ticked lower on Thursday but managed to preserve overnight strong gains back above $49.00 mark.

The black gold gained positive traction on Wednesday, with investors shrugging off bearish Energy Information Administration (EIA) data and taking cues from the latest International Energy Agency (IEA) report on oil demand growth.

The EIA data showed inventories of US crude rose for the second consecutive week, by 5.9m barrels in the week ended Sept. 8. Meanwhile, the IEA revised global oil demand growth estimates to 1.6m bpd. 

Against the backdrop of Tuesday's OPEC monthly oil market report, showing production in August to 32.76 million, the bullish outlook lifted expectations that the demand and the supply imbalance in oil markets would continue to narrow in the coming months and remained supportive for the commodity's up-move.

At the time of reporting, the NYMEX crude futures was down around 0.1% to $49.20 level, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent dipped 0.25% to $55.00 mark.