By Barani Krishnan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude prices rose more than 2 percent on Tuesday as a rally in U.S. gasoline and diesel added support to oil markets already boosted by an industry strike in Brazil and force majeure for Libyan crude loadings.
The rebound, after a 1 percent drop in crude prices on Tuesday, came ahead of industry group American Petroleum Institute's (API) data on U.S. oil inventories, which were expected to a build in crude stockpiles.
"If you look at the supply situation, the bigger picture is bearish. But the price action suggests the path of least resistance is higher for now," said Scott Shelton, oil broker and commodities specialist at ICAP in Durham, North Carolina.
Brent, the global benchmark for oil, was up $1, or 2.1 percent, at $49.79 a barrel by 11:25 a.m. EST (1625 GMT).
U.S. crude was up $1.10, or 2.4 percent, at $47.24.
U.S. gasoline and ultralow sulfur diesel rose about 3 percent on expectations the U.S. government will likely report lower inventories for refined oil products, even as it forecast to cite a 2.7 million-barrel build for crude.
The government report is due on Wednesday, after the API numbers at 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT) on Tuesday.
Gasoline's "crack", or the profit refiners get for turning crude oil into that motor fuel, hit a one-month high.
"Gasoline is leading the charge, while crude takes solace in pushing through some technical levels," said Matt Smith, director of commodities research at the New York-headquartered energy database Clipperdata.
A strike of oil workers in Brazil, the ninth biggest global producer, helped Brent rally to just a couple cents short of $50 a barrel earlier in the session.
The strike that began on Sunday at Brazil's state-run oil producer Petrobras has slowed daily oil output by around 25 percent, and cut around half a million barrels of output in the first 24 hours, the country's largest union said on Tuesday.
In Libya, the export terminal at the eastern port of Zueitina was closed and force majeure has been declared on crude oil loadings, which were disrupted since Sunday, market sources said.
Oil prices have been trending higher since hitting two-month highs on Oct. 27, helped by suggestions of declining U.S. shale oil production.
But Goldman Sachs, Wall Street's leading voice on the oil market, said in a report that U.S. crude output could still rise this year and next, citing its study on oil wells.
(Additional reporting by Simon Falush in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by William Hardy and Marguerita Choy)
