On Thursday Crude prices held gains in Asia as markets ignored off downbeat supply data so far this week from the U.S. and looked ahead to more data on the supply response.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for April delivery rose 0.73% to $48.38 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent gained 0.69% to $50.99 a barrel.
Market attention now turns to the weekly rig count report on Friday from oilfield services firm Baker Hughes. Last week, the report showed the U.S. oil rig count rose by 14 to 631, the ninth straight weekly increase.
For the week ended March 15, The EIA said that crude oil inventories rose by 5 million barrels to a record 533.1 million barrels compared to estimates of an increase of only 2.8 million barrels.
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