LONDON, Feb 22 (Reuters): Oil prices steadied on Thursday, after earlier gains, as a big rise in US crude inventories offset the supportive impact of another attack on shipping near Yemen.
Brent crude futures eased 9 cents, or 0.1 per cent, to $82.94 a barrel at 1339 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures lost 8 cents, or 0.1 per cent, to $77.83 a barrel.
Two missiles were fired at a vessel off the southeast coast of Yemen on Thursday, causing a fire onboard, British maritime agencies said, as Houthis keep up attacks on shipping to show support for the Palestinians in the Gaza war.
".... [Hostilities] in and around the Red Sea by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on commercial ships are guaranteed to continue keeping the geopolitical risk premium at an elevated level," PVM Oil's Tamas Varga said.
A rise in US crude inventories last week weighed on the market, however.
US crude stocks rose 7.17 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 16, market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures said on Wednesday. Gasoline stockpiles also rose while distillate fuel inventories declined.
Investors are awaiting official inventory data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) due at 1600 GMT on Thursday, having been delayed by one day due to a US holiday.
US crude inventories have climbed amid outages at large refineries that have left utilisation rates at the lowest level in two years, though the plants are resuming output.
BP's 435,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Indiana, the largest in the U.S. Midwest, will return to full production in March, according to people familiar with plant operations, after a power outage from Feb. 1.
TotalEnergies' 238,000-bpd refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, is also working to complete a restart, though it is still operating minimally following a weather-related power outage.
Analysts expect US refinery run rates to have risen to 81.5 per cent last week from 80.6 per cent of total capacity in the previous week, according to a Reuters poll.
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