For another day, oil prices in the U.S. slipped Wednesday on news from the federal government that crude supplies rose by 5 million barrels for the week ended March 9.
April contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 4 cents or 0.07% and settled at $60.92 per barrel.
Brent crude on London’s ICE Exchange rose 0.25 or 0.39% and May contracts settled for the day at $64.89 per barrel.
Gas prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange increased .01 or 0.33% and settled at $2.74.
But the growing crude supplies caused the slight fall in oil prices. Inventories rose by 5 million barrels in the week to March 9, compared with the analysts’ expectations for an increase of 2 million barrels.
Production rose as well, with U.S. output hitting 10.38 million barrels a day, a new weekly record; all-time daily output measured on a monthly basis broke a 47-year record in November.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 338,000 barrels, EIA said. That’s the first increase in stocks at the storage hub in 12 weeks, but overall inventory levels remain low at that location.
Further, gasoline stockpiles dropped 6.3 million barrels for the week, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The EIA said demand for gasoline reached a 7-month high in the country.