Slight Drop Recorded in Crude Oil Settlements on Wednesday

Oil futures slid on Wednesday as concerns rose that domestic crude producers will increase output as settlement prices soar, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.

December West Texas Intermediate crude shed 8 cents, or less than 0.2%, to settle at $54.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It climbed to as high as $55.22 in early trading for the day.

January Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell 45 cents, or 0.7%, to finish at $60.49 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that domestic crude supplies fell by 2.4 million barrels for the week ending October 27. That was larger than the forecast for a decline of 1.4 million barrels from analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts. On Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute reported a 5.1 million-barrel decline.

Back on the New York Mercantile Exchange, December natural gas fell 0.1% to $2.893 per million British thermal units.