Investing.com - Crude oil prices remained supported near multi-month highs on Tuesday, still boosted by an overall upbeat outlook for global supply and demand, while markets awaited the release of fresh data on U.S. stockpiles.

The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude October contract was at $50.59 a barrel by 09:00 a.m. ET (13:00 GMT), up 24 cents or about 0.48%, just off a four-month peak of $50.84 reached overnight.

Elsewhere, Brent oil for November delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London was up 14 cents or about 0.25% at $55.62 a barrel, not far from last Thursday's five-month high of $55.98.

Oil prices remained supported by last week's bullish demand forecasts from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the International Energy Agency.

The data also showed that global oil production fell last month for the first time since March, boosting optimism that the market is rebalancing.

Market players were looking ahead to a meeting Friday between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers regarding a possible extension of production caps.

OPEC and its allies are discussing extending by more than three months the oil production cuts that expire in March 2018, potentially prolonging them well into the second half of next year, according to people familiar with the matter.

OPEC and other producers, including Russia, have agreed to reduce output by about 1.8 million barrels per day until next March in a bid to reduce global oil inventories and support oil prices.

Traders were also closely monitoring the path of Hurricane Maria, another top category Atlantic storm that hit the Caribbean islands on Tuesday, to see whether it would knock out refineries or disrupt shipping to and from the huge U.S. market.

Elsewhere, gasoline futures gained slipped 0.16% to $1.665 a gallon, while natural gas futures fell 0.22% to $3.139 per million British thermal units.

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