Oil futures ended lower Thursday, failing to extend gains to a third straight day as doubts lingered about the global economic outlook, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures fell 49 cents, or 1.3%, to $37.26 a barrel.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, fell 41 cents, or 1%, to settle at $39.43 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Exchange.
Oil lost ground amid concerns about world growth. Both benchmarks rallied more than 5% on Wednesday after U.S. supply data showed a surprise drop in U.S. crude inventories of 4.9 million barrels last week.
Oil prices have rallied in the past two months in part on expectations that major producers will agree to limit their output in a bid to alleviate the global oversupply and support prices.
Natural gas futures maintained gains after weekly storage data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Thursday revealed working gas in storage rose by 12 billion cubit feet in the week ended April 1. Analysts had forecast a rise of 10 billion to 14 billion cubic feet.
May natural gas futures rose 10.7 cents, or 5.6%, to $2.018 per million British thermal units.
