Oil prices have gotten a boost after the US government reported a larger than expected drop in crude inventories, thanks in part to production disruptions in Canada, Venezuela, Libya and Nigeria.

Traders are now eyeing a price target of 50 dollars per barrel or more. But as Patrick Fok reports from Singapore, there may be more volatility ahead in the pipeline.

It's become a common sight for morning bathers at Singapore's east coast park - dozens of oil tankers lining the horizon.

Many have been here for weeks. Offshore volumes in Southeast Asia's floating oil storage have reached the highest level in five years,with newly-collected freight data showing close to 50 million barrels are waiting to land.

This map here gives an idea of just how bad it's been -the red dots show all the anchored and slow-moving tankers off Singapore's shores.

"Our assessment is that global oil markets are still over-supplied and in the short term, these supply disruptions did really result in effective cuts in global supply, but if we think in Canada, we're talking around about a million barrels per day and similar between Venezuela and Nigeria combined. That compares with an increase in stock of around 170 million barrels since the beginning of the year only, so looking forward we still think there is downward pressure on prices," said Marie Diron, senior VP of Moody's Investors Service.

Storing oil can be profitable,so long as future prices are high enough to offset tanker charter costs.This type of trade play is known as "contango".

But with onshore facilities almost full to the brim,ongoing charter costs are likely to eat into any profit.And it could only worsen the supply glut further down the line.

"It really depends on the timing of when they will release the oil, because that could disrupt the market again by adding more supply, and it could take some time for prices to recover," said Florence Tan, Reuters Energy correspondent.

Analysts say there's still far too much physical crude going around for the glut to be over, but prices have risen steadily since April, with many investors eyeing a stabilization of oil markets. Judging by what's happening here in Singapore, it could be some way off before that happens.