Oil prices extend gains despite rising inventories

Oil prices continued to rise on Wednesday although US supplies added last week.

US crude supplies of last week gained 8.4 million barrels to 494.9 million barrels, up 88.2 million barrels from one year before, according to the weekly report published by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) on Wednesday.

US crude production lost 14,000 barrels to 9.221 million barrels a day last week, according to the EIA's report.

Abdalla El-Badri, the head of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, called on oil producers outside the group to help in reducing the global oversupply.

"It is crucial that all major producers sit down to come up with a solution to this," El-Badri said Monday at a conference in London.

There were news reports saying that the head of Russian oil company Lukoil suggested Russia should jointly work with OPEC to cut supply.

The West Texas Intermediate for March delivery moved up 85 cents to settle at 32.3 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for March delivery increased 1.3 dollars to close at 33.1 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.