By Jenny W. Hsu 
 

Crude future prices rose in early Asia trade Tuesday, but worries of a persistent global glut will likely keep gains limited.

Concerns of a swelling global surplus overshadowed weak manufacturing data from China, whose slowing oil demand has kept prices low in recent months.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in January traded at $41.94 a barrel at 0240 GMT, up $0.29 in the Globex electronic session. January Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange rose $0.17 to $44.78 a barrel.

The Chinese government said Tuesday the country's official manufacturing purchasing manager index fell to 49.6 in November from 49.8 in the previous month, the lowest reading since August 2012 and the fourth consecutive month below the benchmark level of 50.

A reading above 50 indicates an expansion in activity, while a figure below that level indicates a contraction.

"However, with all the major events and data expected this week, China's weak PMI is bit of a footnote for now," said Stuart Ive, a private client manager at OM Financial, who said a potential silver lining to the soft manufacturing activity is that it might encourage the Chinese government to inject more stimulus measures to boost the economy.

Traders are mostly focused on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting this Friday at Vienna where issues such as production quota, crumbling prices and Iran's resumption of oil supply to the market will take center stage.

While analysts don't expect OPEC leaders to cut output to salvage prices, the current tactic of pumping out oil at a high pace to defend market share regardless of prices has agitated the smaller and less cash-rich members, who are urging for measures to ease the supply glut.

"The expectation for OPEC to either keep its production quota unchanged at 30 million barrels a day, or a tail-end risk for it to increase its quota higher, left oil prices in the doldrums," said OCBC.

Prices have fallen by nearly half since summer last year because of excess supply In November, Nymex prices for January delivery lost $4.94 a per barrel, or 10.60%, to $41.65. Brent prices dropped 10% in the same month.

"The cartel is reluctant [to trim production] because its major competitor Russia is also unwilling to back down from this market share war," said a marine fuel trader based in Singapore.

Market participants will also be watching the U.S. crude inventories and production data this week. A survey conducted by pricing agency Platts estimates a draw of 1.2 million barrels in the crude stockpiles last week while refinery utilization likely rose 0.9% to 92.9%.

The official data will be released on Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Department.

Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for January--the benchmark gasoline contract--rose 165 points to $1.3234 a gallon, while January diesel traded at $1.3685, 143 points higher.

ICE gasoil for December changed hands at $408.00 a metric ton, down $11.50 from Monday's settlement.

Write to Jenny W. Hsu at jenny.hsu@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 30, 2015 22:38 ET (03:38 GMT)