UPDATE 6-Brent gives up gains after rising above $65 on Texas freeze

* U.S. crude stocks fall sharply in latest week -EIA
* Oil and gas production slumps in Texas due to cold snap
* OPEC+ likely to ease supply curbs after April -sources

(Updates prices, market activity, adds commentary; changes
byline, dateline, previous LONDON)
By Stephanie Kelly
NEW YORK, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Oil prices steadied on
Thursday, with Brent edging back from a 13-month high, after a
sharp drop in U.S. crude inventories supported prices, while
buying spurred by a cold snap in the largest U.S.
energy-producing state petered out.
Brent crude LCOc1 rose 3 cents to $64.37 a barrel by 11:40
a.m. EST (1640 GMT), after increasing to $65.52 earlier in the
session, its highest since Jan. 20, 2020.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures rose
5 cents to $61.19 a barrel, after earlier reaching $62.26, the
highest since Jan. 8, 2020.
U.S. crude stockpiles USOILC=ECI fell by 7.3 million
barrels in the week to Feb. 12, the Energy Information
Administration said on Thursday, compared with analysts'
expectations for an decrease of 2.4 million barrels.
Crude exports rose to 3.9 million barrels per day, the
highest since March, EIA said.
"The big nugget was the big jump in exports of crude oil,"
said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital in New York. "We'll
have to see what happens with that next week weather in Texas,
but I have been looking for a pick up there for a while."
Texas' freeze entered a sixth day on Thursday, as the
largest energy-producing state in the United States grappled
with refining outages and oil and gas shut-ins that rippled
beyond its borders into neighbouring Mexico.
The deep freeze has shut in about one-fifth of the nation's
refining capacity and closed oil and natural gas production
across the state.
"The temporary outage will help to accelerate U.S. oil
inventories down towards the five-year average quicker than
expected," SEB chief commodities analyst Bjarne Schieldrop said.
Oil's rally in recent months has also been supported by a
tightening of global supplies, due largely to production cuts
from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) and allied producers in the OPEC+ grouping, which
includes Russia.
OPEC+ sources told Reuters the group's producers are likely
to ease curbs on supply after April given the recovery in
prices.