08:50 AM EDT, 09/05/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Oil prices rose off nine-month lows early on Thursday as a report showed an unexpectedly large drop in U.S. oil inventories last week, while reports said OPEC+ is ready to defer returning some scheduled supply additions to the market.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil for October delivery was last seen up US$0.68 to US$69.88 per barrel, after falling to the lowest since Dec.12 a day earlier. November Brent crude, the global benchmark, was up US$0.72 to US$73.42.

In its weekly survey, the American Petroleum Institute said U.S. oil inventories fell by 7.43-million barrels, well ahead of the consensus analyst estimate for a drop of 0.9-million barrels, according to Oilprice.com. The Energy Information Administration will release official storage data later on Thursday morning, delayed a day due to the Labor Day holiday, which often widely diverges from the API report.

Reports OPEC is ready to delay the return of 180,000 barrels per day of shut-in production to the market is also supporting prices. Bloomberg reported OPEC+ is close to an agreement on postponing the supply additions, to support prices that have dropped on slowing economies in the United States and China.

"There is an ill wind blowing through the confidence in oil prices and the OPEC alliance group must be hoping that it is an acute one and not chronic. News leaks were not slow in coming yesterday that OPEC+ were considering shelving the 180kbpd of increased production due in October." PVM Oil Associates noted.

Further evidence of a slowing U.S. economy came this week with data showing the U.S. manufacturing sector is slowing, while new job openings slowed to 7.7-million in July, down from 7.9 million a month earlier.

The ADP Employment report released on Thursday morning may add to the gloom, with the private sector adding just 99,000 new jobs last month, down from 111,000 in July and under the consensus expectation for a rise of 144,000 positions, according to Marketwatch. Initial Jobless Claims fell to 227,000 last week, down from 231,000 a week earlier but higher than the consensus estimate of 225,000 new claims.