Oil prices rose by around one per cent yesterday, lifted by a report of a drop in US crude inventories and declining production in China, while an upbeat Opec statement on its planned output cut also supported the market.

A slightly weaker dollar boosted oil as well, traders said, as it makes fuel purchases cheaper for countries using other currencies, potentially spurring demand.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were trading at $50.85 per barrel at 0654 GMT, up 56 cents, or 1.1 per cent, from their last settlement.

International Brent crude futures were at $52.23 a barrel, up 55 cents, or one per cent.

“The American Petroleum Institute crude inventory numbers were released ... this has given early Asian trading a bullish start,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA in Singapore.

US crude stockpiles fell 3.8 million barrels in the week to October 14, to 467.1 million barrels, the API reported late on Tuesday.

Traders said oil was supported by Mohammed Barkindo, secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), saying he was confident about the prospects of a planned production cut following an Opec meeting on November 30.

“I am optimistic we will have a decision,” he said.

In its first output cut agreement since 2008, Opec said it planned to reduce production to 32.50 million to 33 million barrels per day (bpd), compared with record output of 33.6 million bpd in September.

The group also hopes non-Opec producers, especially Russia, will cooperate in a cut.

In China, a raft of economic and trade data was released yesterday.

While economic growth was in line with expectations, at an annual growth rate of 6.7 per cent in the third quarter, its oil figures were supportive of higher oil prices, traders said.

China processed 10.7 million bpd of crude oil in September, up 2.4 per cent from a year ago, government data showed.

At the same time, China’s crude output fell 9.8 per cent to 3.89 million bpd, to near its lowest in six years in the second-biggest year-on-year decline on record.