SINGAPORE: Oil prices rebounded in late morning Asian trade Thursday after US inventory data showed a decline in crude supplies as a severe North American winter provided strong support for energy demand.

New York´s main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI)for February delivery was up 33 cents to $92.66 while Brent North crude also rose 33 cents to $107.48 for the February contract.

The US oil inventory recorded a decline by 2.7 million barrels, much bigger than the 600,000 forecast. But gasoline stockpiles rose by 6.2 million barrels, well above the 2.0 million consensus estimate of analysts polled by the Wall Street Journal.

Tan Chee Tat, investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore, believes that the supply glut in gasoline "will not have too much of an impact towards market sentiments".

"It is normal during winter season for gasoline demand to fall whereas crude oil demand rises" he told.

"Heating oil demand is likely to scale higher because of the cold snap in the US and this is likely to lead to higher demand for crude oil."

SOURCE: AFP