09:03 AM EST, 01/23/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Oil prices edged higher early on Thursday following four losing sessions despite a report showing a surprise rise in U.S. inventories last week.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil for March delivery was last seen up US$0.07 to US$75.51 per barrel, while March Brent crude was up US$0.08 to US$79.08.

In its weekly survey, the American Petroleum Institute said U.S. oil inventories rose by one-million barrels last week, the first rise in six weeks. while the consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by Reuters expected a drop of 1.6-million barrels. The Energy Information Administration will release official inventory data later on Thursday morning.

The rise comes as traders continue to assess the impact of Donald Trump's policies on demand. The new president declared a national energy emergency on his first day in office, pledging to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and to spur new drilling even as U.S. production remains near a record high. He also withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Accord and halted funding for green infrastructure projects.

Still, most of the market's focus in on Trump's protectionist economic policies and his determination to upset global trade flows by threatening tariffs on U.S. allies and China, which are likely to be met by countervailing duties and slow global growth.

"The Trump agenda will not support oil demand growth in the near future and will dent it in the medium term. Supply will be adequate unless war breaks out in the Middle East or Russia is cut off. This chasm will stabilize when the inflationary effects of the protectionist policies and the trade wars emerge. Confrontation and hostility will be the zeitgeist of the coming years, and the promised utopia will materialize as something which is akin to dystopia," PVM Oil Associates noted.