Oil futures continued to slide on Wednesday as government data revealed a surprise climb in domestic crude inventories for a second consecutive week, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
December West Texas Intermediate crude declined by 37 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at $55.33 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
January Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell 34 cents, or 0.6%, to end trading at $61.87 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that domestic crude supplies rose by 1.9 million barrels for the week ending November 10. That was contrary to the forecast for a decline of one million barrels from analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts. Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute reported a large 6.5 million-barrel weekly climb.
Wednesday’s EIA report also showed that total U.S. crude production rose 25,000 barrels a day to 9.645 million barrels a day. That was the largest average weekly tally based on EIA data going back to 1983.
Back on the New York Mercantile Exchange, December natural gas ended at $3.08 per million British thermal units, down 0.7%, ahead of an EIA report on natural gas supplies due Thursday.