By Alex Ho

Investing.com - Oil prices rose on Friday in Asia after hitting nine-week lows in the previous session amid fears over the new China coronavirus.

U.S. Crude Oil WTI Futures gained 0.5% to $55.84 by 12:01 AM ET (04:01 GMT), while international Brent Oil Futures rose 0.4% to $62.28.

The flu-like virus, which can be transmitted from person to person, has killed 25 people in China so far and infected more than 800, according to data released by Chinese authorities on Friday.

But fears of contagion were calmed somewhat after the WHO said it was "too early" to worry about a global outbreak, adding that the virus remained a local crisis for now.

"If the epidemic spreads and we start to see the flight cancellations spread to other countries and airports in Asia, it would certainly have a "significant hit on jet fuel demand and therefore crude oil," Schork Report Editor Stephen Schork said.

Meanwhile, oil inventories fell by 405,000, the EIA reported in its weekly report. Traders were looking for a decline of about 1 million barrels for oil inventories, according to forecasts compiled by Investing.com.

Gasoline inventories rose by 1.75 million barrles, versus forecasts for a a rise of about 1 million barrels. Distillate stockpiles dropped by about 1.2 million barrels, versus expectations for a build of 3 million barrels.

“After the humongous build in fuels the past two weeks, you can say that this is a relatively positive report for the bulls,” Investing.com analyst Barani Krishan said. “Yet it doesn’t seem to have helped sentiment too much as the market’s worries are all on China demand now, pursuant to the coronavirus problem.”

“While we had a near 1-million barrel decline in Cushing stockpiles, U.S. crude exports fell about 70,000 bpd on the week and production remained at a stubborn high of 13 million bpd,“ he added.

“Unless we get some strong offtakes soon on the products side, it’s going to be hard to see much positives in this market.”

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