Crude-oil futures rose in Asian trading hours on Wednesday ahead of a weekly U.S. oil inventory report and after news the U.S. had granted crude-oil-export licenses. On the New York Mercantile Exchange light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at $97.65 a barrel at 0548 GMT–up $0.46 in the Globex electronic session. March Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.23 to $106.01 a barrel. Nymex WTI crude extended gains while Brent rebounded after settling at its lowest this year in overnight floor trade–narrowing the Brent-WTI spread to around $8.28 a barrel. U.S. oil stocks rose by 384,000 barrels in the week ended Jan. 31, data from the American Petroleum Institute trade group showed late on Tuesday. The more closely watched data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration is due later on Wednesday. U.S. oil stocks likely rose by 2.2 million barrels on […]