Crude futures climbed Tuesday morning to trade back above the $59-a-barrel level as traders weighed expectations for a climb in U.S. crude inventories against predictions for a sixth-weekly decline in motor gasoline supplies.

The Energy Department will release its weekly data on petroleum supplies on Wednesday. January crude was up 50 cents at $59.30 a barrel. December natural gas fell by 8.9 cents, or 1.1%, to $7.93 per million British thermal units.