Oil higher in Asian trade, trading above $50

SINGAPORE: Oil prices were higher in Asian trade on Thursday, pushed up by a smaller-than-expected rise in US crude reserves, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for May delivery gained 70 cents to $50.08.

Brent North Sea crude for May delivery advanced 59 cents to $52.18.

Prices received a mild boost from the latest US energy report released yesterday, which showed the country's crude stocks increased by a smaller margin than the industry had forecast, analysts said.

The weekly Department of Energy report showed crude reserves rose by 1.6 million barrels in the week ending April 3, lower than the gain of 1.9 million barrels that analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had predicted.

"The increase in US crude oil inventories was less than some had feared," said David Moore, a commodity strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.

Oil prices are down significantly from record peaks of above $147 reached in July last year, pulled down by worries about the global crisis, but Algeria's energy minister had an upbeat outlook.

"The global economy is starting to pick up, especially in the United States," Algeria's energy minister Chakib Khelil told AFP yesterday.