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Analysts forecast U.S. crude stocks declined for a fifth week in a row, falling 1.8 million barrels during the week ended May 5, after hitting an all-time high over 535.5 million barrels at the end of March, according to a Reuters poll.

“We really need to see some of the data starting to support the idea that global inventory levels are coming down,” Saxo Bank senior manager Ole Hansen said, noting there have also been signs there has been wavering in terms of demand growth.

High U.S. gasoline stocks have fed concern about demand in the United States, where consumer spending expectations hit a three-year low last month and vehicle sales have fallen year-on-year for four months in a row.

Coupled with that is faltering manufacturing activity and a drop in commodity imports in China, the world’s second-largest economy and biggest raw materials consumer.

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said Monday it would “do whatever it takes” to rebalance a market that has been dogged by oversupply for over two years.

Saudi Aramco will curb oil supplies to Asia by about 7 million barrels in June, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

“Although OPEC is apparently putting on a renewed push to support values, this looks like the only significant bullish consideration currently available to the energy complex,” Jim Ritterbusch, president of Chicago-based energy advisory firm Ritterbusch & Associates, said in a note.

Even though OPEC has stuck to its pledge to cut production, U.S. output has risen by more than 10 per cent since mid-2016 to 9.3 million barrels per day in 2017 and a forecast all-time high of 10.0 million barrels in 2018, boosted by the shale sector and close to the output of Russia and Saudi Arabia.