News that U.S. crude inventories rose by 16 million barrels in the past week sent crude prices slipping ever so slightly in Wednesday’s trading. At the same time, investors remained wary about the U.S. and Iran nuclear talks and whether the the flow of oil from the Middle East could be threatened.
West Texas Intermediate crude fell 21 cents and finished at $65.42 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude rose 8 cents to settle at $70.85 a barrel.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration explained the 16 million barrel increase in U.S. crude inventories was a million more than analysts forecast in a Reuters poll.
Natural gas prices turned around on Wednesday, settling at $2.96 MMBtu following a slight gain of $0.054 or 1.85%.
Wednesday’s trading produced more losses than gains for Oklahoma energy stocks. The big gainer was Empire Petroleum Corp. with an increase of more than 5%. Most of the losses were in the 1% or less range.