Oil prices were little changed in Asian trading hours after losses overnight as the market awaited data on US crude stockpiles, dealers said. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in July, was down 0.02 usd at 53.74 usd a barrel from its close of 53.76 usd in New York overnight. The contract had dropped 0.73 usd in New York after the OPEC president said he would propose a 500,000 barrel per day hike in the cartel's output ceiling at a meeting in Vienna next week if prices remain at high levels. Victor Shum, an analyst here for US energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz, said investors are expecting a build in US inventories when the US Department of Energy (DoE) releases its figures late today. "Demand has been generally good and robust but considering US refineries have been running essentially flat out, investors sense that there ought to be some stock build." Fears of a shortage of distillate products -- especially of heating oil -- during the next northern hemisphere winter had pushed prices on Monday to 55.55 usd, the highest intra-day level since April 25. The market has since retreated, with analysts saying the reaction was premature as winter is still months away. The DoE reported last week that US distillates stockpiles rose 700,000 barrels to 106.4 mln in the week ended May 27 but still remained at below-average levels for this time of the year. Crude oil inventories increased 1.4 mln barrels to 333.8 mln and gasoline stockpiles rose 1.3 mln barrels to 216.7 mln, the DoE said.