Domestic Crude Oil Supplies Fall, WTI and Brent Crude Futures Also Drop on Wednesday

00102_Crudeoildown041516

Crude oil futures settled lower on Wednesday despite weekly government data that revealed a decrease in crude stockpiles, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, January West Texas Intermediate crude fell $1.16, or 2.3%, to settle at $49.77 a barrel. WTI was trading at $50.41 before the supply data.

On the London ICE Futures Exchange, February Brent crude, the global benchmark, shed 93 cents, or 1.7%, to end trading at $53 a barrel.

Both crude contracts settled at their lowest levels since November 30.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that domestic crude oil supplied fell by 2.4 million barrels for the week ending December 2. That was larger than the 2.2 million-barrel decline reported by American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts expected a drop of 1.7 million barrels.

Crude inventories saw a “solid drop, despite a rebound in imports, as refining activity increased,” said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at ClipperData.

Meanwhile, January natural gas fell 3.2 cents, or 0.9%, to end trading at $3.603 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange.