Despite a decline in domestic crude supplies, oil futures finished slightly lower on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, January West Texas Intermediate crude fell by 7 cents, or 0.2%, to settle at $47.96 a barrel.
On London’s ICE Futures Exchange, January Brent crude, the global benchmark, lost 17 cents, or 0.4%, to end trading at $48.95 a barrel.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday that domestic crude supplies for the week ending November 18 fell by 1.3 million barrels. Inventories had climbed in each of the past three weeks.
The weekly decline matched the report issued by the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts expected crude supplies to be unchanged, while a survey from The Wall Street Journal predicted an increase of 800,000 barrels.
Meanwhile, December natural gas rose 4.4 cents, or 1.5%, to end trading at $3.026 per million British thermal units, ahead of the contract’s expiration at the settlement Monday.