Oil prices stabilizing ahead of Thanksgiving holiday

Oil prices steadied Wednesday amid thin trading volume before the Thanksgiving holiday.

U.S. crude supplies of last week gained 1 million barrels to 488.2 million barrels, below market's expectation, or 105.2 million barrels more than one year before, according to the weekly report released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Wednesday.

Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the U.S. contract, added 1.75 million barrels to 58.6 million barrels.

U.S. crude production added 17,000 to 9.165 million barrels a day last week, according to EIA's report.

Data released by oil service company Baker Hughes Wednesday showed that the number of active U.S. oil-drilling rigs decreased to 555 of this week.

The West Texas Intermediate for January delivery moved up 17 cents to settle at 43.04 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for January delivery increased 5 cents to close at 46.17 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.