pump jacks operate at sunset in an oil field in midland texas us august 22 2018 reutersnick oxford singapore june 8 reuters  oil prices edged up on wednesday ahead of data on us oil inventories with crude futures supported by tight supplies and recovering fuel demand as chinas top cities relax covid19 curbs brent crude futures for august rose 22 cents or 02 to 12079 a barrel by 0012 gmt after closing at the highest since may 31 on tuesday us west texas intermediate crude for july was at 11965 a barrel up 24 cents or 02 after reaching its highest settlement since march 8 on tuesday analysts polled by reuters expect another drawdown of us crude inventories in data for last week although gasoline and distillates stocks could edge higher however figures from the american petroleum institute showed that us crude and oil products inventories rose last week the us energy information administration eia reports at 1030 am edt 1430 gmt on wednesday global crude and oil products supplies remain tight boosting asian refiners diesel margins to record levels as western sanctions hamper exports from major producer russia read more the ceo of global commodities trader trafigura said oil prices could soon hit 150 a barrel and go higher this year with demand destruction likely by the end of the year most refineries globally are already running at close to their maximum capacities to meet rising demand from pandemic recovery and replace lost russian supplies jp morgan analysts estimate that russia has cut about 500000 to 700000 barrels per day of oil products exports as it has been more difficult for moscow to market its fuel than crude unless new middle east capacity comes online more quickly than we expect or china decides to lift its products export caps the shortage of clean products will only get worse as demand for transport fuels picks up during the northern hemisphere summer they said in a note on tuesday china topped up its first batch of product export quotas aimed at easing high domestic inventories after demand was dented by covid19 lockdowns although volumes remained much lower than last year read more we do not see a meaningful impact to ease the current diesel tightness but will watch for the startup progress of new refiners like petronas rapid and kuwait alzour citi analyst oscar yee said in a note