Oil Prices Ease as Crude Inventories Rise Unexpectedly

Investing.com – West Texas Intermediate oil remained lower in North American trade on Wednesday, as data showed that oil supplies in the U.S. unexpectedly rose.

for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange were little changed following the report, down 0.62% at $71.81 a barrel by 10:32 AM ET (14:32 GMT) from $71.72 prior.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that rose by 1.852 million barrels in the week ending September 21. Market analysts’ had expected a crude-stock decline of 1.279 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute late Wednesday reported an increase of 2.903 million barrels.

, the key delivery point for Nymex crude, increased by 461,000 barrels last week, the EIA said.

Total U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 396 million barrels as of last week, according to a press release, which the EIA said was “2% below the five year average for this time of year.”

The report also showed that rose by 1.530 million barrels, compared to expectations for an increase of 788,000 barrels, while fell by 2.241 million barrels, compared to forecasts for a rise of 752,000.

Prices of oil have been driven higher in the past few weeks as upcoming U.S. sanctions against Iran weighed on investors and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries failed to increase supply production to counter the impact of the sanctions on output.

U.S. President Donald Trump has asked the group of oil producers to stop raising prices, reiterating calls in a speech at the U.N. for OPEC to pump more oil. He also said Iran was sowing chaos and said he would impose more sanctions on the oil rich country.

Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange in London, fell 0.09% to $81.19 while increased 0.05% to $2.0500 a gallon, while gained 0.05% to $2.3108 a gallon.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.