Oil switched between gains and losses after a U.S. government report showed domestic crude inventories fell ahead of a sharp reduction in output due to a cold blast sweeping parts of the country.

New York futures returned after sliding 1.3% on Thursday. U.S. crude stocks fell more than a million barrels last week, the lowest in nearly a year, the Energy Information Administration said in a report. The data also showed the supply of the country's largest storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, fell the most in a month, with unrefined output down.

The uninterrupted cold snap highlights the fourth consecutive weekly decline in U.S. supplies and production before about 40% of domestic output is wiped out.

"It supports the general thesis that as the recovery takes shape, refiners will continue to improve immediately and demand will continue to grow," said Quinn Kelly, portfolio manager at Tortoise, an energy resource management company of about 8 8 billion. .

Traders are evaluating the limited available U.S. output with another refrigerator expected overnight in Texas. As analysts try to identify the time span involved in building the infrastructure, estimates of how long the U.S. disruption could last in recent days.