As the U.S. Energy Information Administration prepares to release a forecast showing a fall of 100,000 barrels in domestic crude supplies, crude prices slipped on Tuesday.
Experts believe Wednesday’s release of the forecast will also show a decline of 1.9 million barrels in gasoline stockpiles.
West Texas Intermediate July futures dropped 36 cents or 1% before settling at $40.37 a barrel, still above the $40 a barrel mark preferred by some producers.
Brent crude on the ICE futures in London fell 70 cents or 2% and finished the day at $42.38 a barrel.
Natural gas was down 3 cents at $1.64 per Million Btu which represented a 2% decline.
Chesapeake Energy fell 8 cents or 1% before ending the day at $12.26 a share. SandRidge Energy was up a penny to finish at $1.34. Devon Energy dropped 32 cents or 2.52% before settling to $12.38.
ConocoPhillips added 25 cents to finish at $43.81 while EOG Resources grew by 4 cents and ended at $52.46.
Marathon Oil gained 6 cents or 1% and ended at $6.33 a share while ONEOK dropped 57 cents or 1.5% a share and finished at $35.36.
Phillips 66 added 30 cents to settle at $74.70.
In the utilities sector, American Electric Power gained 33 cents and finished at $80.95 a share.