Oil struggles ahead of U.S. supply update
Oil costs were lower in European trade on Wednesday, as investors looked ahead to weekly information from the U.S. on stockpiles of crude and refined product later within the international day.
Станок-качалка компании PetroChina на нефтяном месторождении в Китае 4 ноября 2007 года. Нефть Brent упала во вторник до нового 5,5-летнего минимума, так как опасения о переизбытке поставок перевесили страхи, вызванные срывом добычи в Ливии. REUTERS/Stringer
The U.S. West American state Intermediate crude August contract was at $43.91 a barrel by 3:35AM ET (0735GMT), down thirty two cents, or around zero.7%. It touched its highest since June nineteen at $44.44 every day earlier.
Elsewhere, brant oil for Sept delivery on the ICE commodities exchange in London shed twenty three cents, or about 0.5%, to $46.69 a barrel, once touch a quite one-week high of $47.30 within the previous session.
Crude costs denote sharp gains on Tuesday, with the artefact work its fourth winning session in an exceedingly row.
The U.S. Energy data Administration can unharness its official weekly oil provides report at 10:30AM ET (1430GMT).
Analysts expect crude inventories born by around a pair of.5 million barrels at the top of last week, whereas hydrocarbon provides area unit seen decreasing by 583,000 barrels and distillates area unit forecast to achieve concerning 453,000 barrels.
After markets closed Tuesday, the yankee crude Institute aforesaid that U.S. oil inventories rose by 851,000 barrels in the week ended June 23.
The API report also showed a gain of 1.35 million barrels in gasoline stocks, while distillate stocks rose by 678,000 barrels.
There are often sharp divergences between the API estimates and the official figures from EIA.
Oil prices have been under pressure in recent weeks as concern over rising U.S. shale output offset production cuts by OPEC and non-OPEC members.
U.S. drillers last week added rigs for the 23rd week in a row, according to data from energy services company Baker Hughes, implying that further gains in domestic production are ahead.
The increase in U.S. drilling activity and shale production has mostly offset efforts by OPEC and other producers to cut output in a move to prop up the market.
Last month, OPEC and some non-OPEC producers extended a deal to cut 1.8 million barrels per day in supply until March 2018.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for August held steady at $1.437 a gallon, while August heating oil dipped 0.9 cents to $1.409 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for August delivery tacked on 0.6 cents to $3.070 per million British thermal units.