By Barani Krishnan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Thursday after data showing a weekly drawdown in U.S. crude stockpiles helped crude markets recover from OPEC's decision not to set a ceiling for its production.
U.S. crude stockpiles fell 1.4 million barrels in the last week, the Energy Information Administration said. Although lower than a 2.5 million barrels forecast by analysts, the draw still helped crude futures erase early losses.
Brent was up 20 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $49.92 a barrel by 11:41 a.m. EDT (1541 GMT), after touching an intraday low of $48.84.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose by 3 cents $49.04, after tumbling more than $1 earlier.
Market participants had followed the OPEC meeting in Vienna for signs the group may revive its collective output quota, as proposed by Saudi Arabia, or introduce individual member production quotas, as suggested by Iran.
But the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries failed to agree on these, with Saudi Arabia, its dominant voice, saying any "artificial ceiling" would be premature.
(Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in LONDON; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Bernadette Baum)
