Oil prices dropped to their lowest settlement in seven months on Wednesday, after U.S. government data showed a smaller-than-expected weekly decline in domestic supplies and an increase in crude production, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, July West Texas Intermediate crude fell $1.73, or 3.7%, to settle at $44.73 a barrel.
On the London ICE Futures Exchange, August Brent crude lost $1.72, or 3.5%, to end trading at $47 a barrel, marking the lowest finish since late November.
Prices were already trading lower before the International Energy Agency issued its report that warned the global oil glut will persist this year despite efforts to curb supply.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that domestic crude supplies fell by 1.7 million barrels for the week ending June 9.
Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute reported that crude inventories rose 2.8 million barrels last week, while analysts at Citi Futures forecast a decline of between 2 million and 3 million barrels.
Total domestic production also climbed by 12,000 barrels to 9.330 million barrels last week, after posting a decline a week earlier, according to the EIA.
An IEA monthly report on Wednesday indicated the world’s oil oversupply will remain in place through 2017, as efforts by OPEC to curb petroleum production have hit a wall in the U.S.
Back on the New York Mercantile Exchange, July natural gas lost 3.3 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $2.933 per million British thermal units.