Oil prices finished lower as domestic data revealed crude stockpiles at a record, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
May West Texas Intermediate crude fell 20 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $48.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
May Brent crude, the global benchmark, lost 32 cents, or 0.6%, to end trading at $50.64 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Exchange.
Earlier on Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that domestic crude oil supplies rose by 5 million barrels for the week ending March 17, marking the tenth increase in 11 weeks. Domestic inventories now total 533.1 million barrels—a record—based on EIA data.
Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts had forecast an increase of two million barrels for crude supplies, while the American Petroleum Institute reported a 4.5 million-barrel climb late Tuesday.
Troy Vincent, an oil analyst at ClipperData, said it is important to keep an eye on stockpiles at the Cushing, Oklahoma oil storage hub, after stocks there rose by 1.5 million barrels.
“Cushing stocks are now 10 million barrels higher than October levels and quickly approaching record highs,” said Vincent.
Domestic crude production totaled 9.129 million barrels a day last week, up 20,000 barrels a day, according to the EIA.
Meanwhile, April natural gas shed 8.2 cents, or 2.7%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange to settle at $3.011 per million British thermal units.
