Crude oil prices remain steady as liquidity in Asia faded ahead with many countries in the region set to celebrate Lunar New Year holiday.

Brent crude futures were trading at $34.41 per barrel, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures increased 6 cents and traded at 31.78 a barrel, Reuters reported.

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Due to the holiday, which will last for most of next week, liquidity was low in the region, according to traders.

"Bloated crude inventories in the US pose rising risk to WTI."

Investment bank Jefferies said that crude prices in the US had traded within a 19% band over the last week.

During the week ending 29 January 2016, crude stocks in the US increased 7.8 million barrels to 502.7 million barrels.

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The news agency quoted BMI Research saying: "Bloated crude inventories in the US pose rising risk to WTI.

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"A continued build in storage over the coming six to eight weeks could collapse the price of WTI, driving a sharp reopening of the spread to Brent."

OPEC Secretariat calculations revealed that the price of OPEC basket of 13 crudes stood at $29.90 a barrel on Thursday, compared with $28.63 on Wednesday.