08:55 AM EDT, 06/20/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Oil prices edged higher early on Thursday on expectations summer demand is on the rise amid tight supply while fresh inventory data is awaited.

West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery was last seen up US$0.06 to US$81.63 per barrel, while August Brent crude was up US$0.29 to US$85.36.

Strong summer demand is expected to deplete oil inventories, with supply restricted after OPEC+ earlier this month extended 2.2-million barrels per day of production cuts slated to end on June 30 to the end of September.

"Focus is still on resilient demand coming from an expanding global economy while OPEC+ recently extended supply cuts and hinted more could come if necessary," Saxo Bank noted.

Still, demand hopes have been strained by rising U.S. inventories. The American Petroleum Institute's weekly survey released on Tuesday showed oil inventories rose by 2.26-million barrels last week, while the consensus estimate from analysts polled by Reuters expected stocks to fall by 2.2-million barrels. The market will look for confirmation of the drop when the Energy Information Administration releases official data later on Thursday morning, a day later than usual due to the Juneteenth holiday.