World oil prices retreated on Wednesday when investors took profits from recent gains ahead of US inventory data, analysts said.
Brent North Sea crude for delivery in June lost 35 cents to $119.31 a barrel in London afternoon deals.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude or West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for June, fell 42 cents to $105.74 a barrel.
Crude prices had surged in New York on Tuesday, supported by stronger-than-expected industrial data in the US and China, the world's top energy consumers.
Later on Wednesday, the US government's Department of Energy will publish its weekly snapshot of crude inventories for the week ending April 27.
“There has been some profit-taking in the market after the WTI reacted very positively to strong US and Chinese manufacturing data,” said Victor Shum, senior analyst at Purvin and Gertz energy consultants in Singapore.
Manufacturing activity in the United States, the biggest consumer of crude oil, unexpectedly grew in April, according to a closely watched index released Tuesday.
The Institute for Supply Management's purchasing managers index rose to 54.8 percent from 53.4 percent in March; analysts had forecast a decline.
The manufacturing sector has been underpinning the US recovery from a deep 2008-2009 recession. The upbeat PMI report stoked optimism ahead of Friday's official job report for April.
China's manufacturing sector also provided a shot of support for the market.
The world's second-biggest economy and top energy consumer said manufacturing activity rose for the fifth straight month in April to a 13-month high.
The official PMI index rose to 53.3 from 53.1 in March, slightly missing expectations.
Traders meanwhile remain wary over the troubled state of the eurozone economy, analysts said.
World Bank president Robert Zoellick said Tuesday that Europe would struggle to achieve needed economic reforms without growth to support them, adding that focus is on the situation in Italy and Spain.
The two countries “are undertaking fiscal consolidation and structural reforms but that's very hard to do in a no-growth environment,” he said.
Italy and Spain, the third- and fourth-biggest economies in the eurozone, are in recession. Investors fear Spain, in particular, may be the next to follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek an international bailout. - Sapa-AFP