Investing.com – WTI crude oil prices settled lower after data showed a large build in both crude and gasoline stockpiles as US output continued to rise.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange for April delivery fell 2.17% to settle at $61.64 a barrel, while on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, fell 2.60% to trade at $66.69 a barrel.
Inventories of U.S. crude rose by 3.019 million barrels for the week ended Feb. 23, exceeding expectations of 2.4 million barrels.
Gasoline inventories – one of the products that crude is refined into – by 2.483 million barrels, confounding expectations for a decline of 190,000 barrels, while supplies of distillate – the class of fuels that includes diesel and – by 960,000 barrels, a steeper fall than the 709,000 million barrels forecast.
The massive build in gasoline stockpiles garnered most of the attention as some market participants had expected that a slowdown in refinery activity – as refiners enter period of maintenance – would lead to fall in gasoline supplies.
Also adding to negative sentiment was an uptick in domestic crude production to 10.3 million barrels per day as the US closes in on Russia as the world’s largest oil producer. That added to investor fears that a faster pace of US output would slow OPEC’s efforts to rebalance oil markets.
“All the indicators that suggest continued fast growth in the U.S. are in perfect alignment; rising prices leading, after a few months, to more drilling, more completions, more production and more hedging,” the International Energy Agency said in the report.
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Source: Investing.com
