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London - Global oil prices diverged on Wednesday as traders digested the latest weekly crude inventories report from top consumer the United States.
The market was also under pressure after a Saudi-led coalition declared an end to four weeks of air strikes in Yemen.
In London late afternoon deals, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in June delivery rose 59 cents to $62.68 per barrel.
On the downside, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for June dipped 35 cents to $56.26 a barrel compared with Tuesday's close.
The US government's Department of Energy reported Wednesday that commercial oil stocks jumped 5.3 million barrels in the week to April 17.
That was the fifteenth successive weekly increase and beat expectations for a gain of 3.2 million according to analysts polled by Bloomberg.
However, the gain was lower than that posted by industry body the American Petroleum Institute (API), which said Tuesday that inventories rallied 5.5 million barrels last week.
Rising US petroleum reserves typically indicate slack demand in the world's top crude consumer, pushing global prices down.
Total reserves in the US are currently at a 85-year-high, contributing to a global supply glut that was the main factor for the commodity's collapse of more than 50% between June and January.
"This week's crude oil inventory build exceeded consensus expectations and takes stocks to record levels," said BNP Paribas analysts in a note to clients.
"However, the initially-positive price response to the data release would appear to have focused on some other elements of the data release, which provided some crumbs of comfort to price bulls. For example, domestics crude production continued to fall."
They added that the increase in stockpiles at the key storage hub of Cushing, Oklahoma, was continuing to slow.
Crude futures had fallen earlier Wednesday after the Saudi-led coalition halted a four-week air war in Yemen.
However, ground fighting between Iran-backed rebels and government loyalists raged on, in a blow to US-led calls for renewed peace talks.
"Oil sagged after Saudi Arabia ended its military campaign in Yemen, easing tensions in the energy-rich Middle East," noted ETX Capital analyst David Papier.
The air strikes stopped at midnight (21:00 GMT Tuesday) but residents of Yemen's battleground second city Aden and third city Taez reported no let-up in fighting between the rebels and supporters of exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
The coalition said its operations would now enter a political phase but left open the option of resuming the air raids if necessary.
Although Yemen is not a particularly important oil producer, market watchers have been worried about the impact of the turmoil on the oil-rich region, notably in Iran, which is suspected of supporting the rebellion.
