(Bloomberg) —Oil traded near $52 a barrel in New York as Libya said it reopened two oil fields while analysts project government data to show U.S. crude supplies fell for a fifth week.

Futures fluctuated after rising as much as 1.1 percent amid gains in U.S. and European equities. Libya’s National Oil Corp. said it reopened the Sharara and El-Feel fields and said they should help boost output by 175,000 barrels a day within one month and 270,000 within three months. Stockpiles probably fell by 2.5 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey before an Energy Information Administration report on Wednesday.

Oil has traded near $50 a barrel since the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed Nov. 30 to cut output for the first time in eight years. Non-OPEC producers including Russia will also trim supply. The reductions may trim swollen stockpiles as early as the first quarter, Citigroup Inc. said. U.S. crude inventories are at the highest seasonal level since the EIA began compiling weekly data in 1982. Gulf Coast refiners curb deliveries at the end of the year to reduce local taxes.

“We’re in a consolidation period,” Gene McGillian, manager of market research for Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut, said by telephone. “We’re going to move back and forth on headlines. Any headline that points to cheating on quotas or higher production will put downward pressure on the market.”

West Texas Intermediate for  January delivery, which expires Tuesday, rose 15 cents to $52.27 a barrel at 12:12 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Total volume traded was about 38 percent below the 100-day average. The more-active February contract climbed 25 cents to $53.31 a barrel.

U.S. Stockpiles

Brent for February settlement rose 40 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $55.32 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The global benchmark crude traded at a $2.01 premium to February WTI.

See also: OPEC’s oil cuts deal shifts focus to compliance

The agreement between OPEC and other producers may help send Brent prices above $70 a barrel next year, according  Ed Morse, head of commodity research at at Citigroup.

The EIA is projected to report that U.S. gasoline stockpiles increased in the week ended Dec. 16, while inventories of distillate fuel, a category that includes heating or and diesel, declined, according to the survey of analysts.

Crude stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI and the biggest U.S. oil-storage hub, probably increased by 1.9 million barrels last week, according to a forecast compiled by Bloomberg.

“The Cushing numbers could put downward pressure on the front WTI contract,” John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC, a New York-based hedge fund that focuses on energy, said by telephone.

Oil-market news: President Barack Obama is preparing to block the sale of new offshore drilling rights in much of the U.S. Arctic and parts of the Atlantic, according to two people familiar with the decision. A tanker arrived at Es Sider, Libya’s biggest oil port to load the terminal’s first cargo since it was closed two years. Saudi Arabia retakes position as biggest oil seller to India, according to shipping data obtained by Bloomberg.

With assistance from Grant Smith. To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Shenk in New York at mshenk1@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Marino at dmarino4@bloomberg.net Carlos Caminada, Richard Stubbe