By Eric Yep 
 

Crude-oil futures moved in a narrow price range in Asian trade Tuesday with investors closely tracking oil production levels in the U.S. and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in May traded at $56.34 a barrel at 0513 GMT, down $0.04 in the Globex electronic session. June Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.09 to $63.36 a barrel.

Oil prices were mixed in the last trading session, with Nymex crude settling 1.2% higher, while Brent crude remained unchanged.

Talk that oil inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point for Nymex WTI futures may have declined over the second half of last week may have helped to support the market, analyst Tim Evans at Citi Futures said in a note.

However, both U.S. total commercial crude stocks and Cushing inventories are expected to show at least a moderate further build for the week ended April 17 as a whole, he said.

The oil inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute is due later Tuesday, followed by the more closely-watched report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.

Market observers are also starting to speculate about the next OPEC meeting scheduled for June 5 and whether the cartel will make any changes to its stance of maintaining oil production levels.

"Although it's hard to predict how the views within OPEC may shift between now and June 5, we think it's not too soon to consider how different policy options might translate into oil price levels," Mr. Evans said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to the Yemeni coast to join a growing fleet of ships keeping watch on an Iranian flotilla American defense officials suspect may be carrying arms for Houthi fighters in Yemen.

Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for May--the benchmark gasoline contract--fell 36 points to $1.9279 a gallon, while May diesel traded at $1.8770, 1 points lower.

ICE gasoil for May changed hands at $572.50 a metric ton, down $1.50 from Monday's settlement.

-- Dion Nissenbaum contributed to this article.

Write to Eric Yep at eric.yep@wsj.com