Crude oil prices pulled back early in the Thursday session amid U.S. inventory buildups, ending a midweek rally spurred in part by comments from OPEC leaders.

Brent crude oil prices are up 4.6 percent for the week. Prices rose about 2 percent during the Wednesday session, but retreated about 0.8 percent early in the Thursday session to sell for $61.10 per barrel for April delivery.

Midweek momentum was driven in part by dueling comments from members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Nigeria's oil minister told the Financial Times there may be an extraordinary meeting for the 12-member group, but her Saudi counterpart later said there was no need for knee-jerk reactions in a market he described as calm.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its latest weekly petroleum status update U.S. commercial crude oil inventories increased by more than 8 million barrels from the week ending Feb. 13.

"At 434.1 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are at the highest level for this time of year in at least the last 80 years," EIA said in a statement.

The buildup comes as total U.S. oil production increased modestly for the week ending Feb. 20 to 9.285 million barrels per day. That's up 15.2 percent year-on-year and close to a 40-year high.

The price for West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, has been unable to sustain levels above the $50 per barrel mark. The price for WTI was off more than 2.8 percent from the previous session to trade at $49.54 for the April contract.