A report from the American Petroleum Institute that the nation has a whopping 9,196-million-barrel build in gasoline inventories, oil prices both in the U.S. and overseas dropped in Wednesday’s trading.
West Texas Intermediate crude fell $1.66 in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, hitting $55.96 per barrel. That’s a drop of 2.88% from the previous day.
In London, Brent crude contracts for February dropped $1.60 to hit $61.26 per barrel, a drop of 2.55%
Natural gas prices in the U.S. rose slightly to reach $2.922 per Mbtu. They went up 0.27%.
Analysts are blaming the drop on the increase in gasoline inventories. They had expected a small build of only 1.145 million barrels, not the amount that API report.