Oil prices pulled back Wednesday, with benchmark Brent turning negative as U.S. crude inventories surged the most on record, but the pullback was muted by hopes that a meeting between OPEC and allied producers on Thursday will trigger output cuts.

U.S. crude inventories rose 15.2 million barrels in the week, the most on record, as refiners slashed runs and the storage hub at Cushing filled more quickly than expected, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a weekly report on Wednesday

Brent crude LCOc1 was down 11 cents, or 0.3%, at $31.76 by 15:06 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 rose 63 cents to $24.26 a barrel, after earlier trading as high as $25.29 a barrel.

Despite the split, the benchmarks were supported by expectations that production cuts from OPEC may lie ahead.