Oil is trading mixed today ahead of data on official U.S. Crude Oil Inventories - analyst expect that U.S. Crude stockpiles will further increase to a new record for the 11^th straight week. The American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, reported yesterday that U.S. crude inventories increased by 4.8 million barrels in the week ended March 20. Worldwide storage capacity is slowly nearing a maximum which will further weigh prices down.

Brent Crude added +0.51% and holding above USD55, currently trading at USD55.39 a barrel. On January 13th Crude set a low at USD45.19. West Texas Intermediate lost -0.19% currently quoted at USD47.42.

Oil prices declined sharply in recent months as worldwide supply exceeds demand in a period of low global economic growth, pushing stockpiles to record highs and weighing on prices.