Crude oil prices fall after surprise inventory data

Crude oil prices declined on Wednesday after a surprise increase in US oil inventories for the week ended July 16.

Crude oil inventories, which measure the weekly increase in barrels of commercial crude oil held in inventory by US firms, increased by 400,000 barrels in the week ending 16 July from the previous week, a report from US Energy Information Administration showed Wednesday.

Analysts’ had anticipated a 1.3 million barrel decline and a trade group on Tuesday reported a decline of 241,000 barrels for the same week. At 353.5 million barrels, US crude oil inventories are above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year.

Light sweet crude for September delivery declined 0.42 percent or 35 cents to $77.23 a barrel and Brent crude futures fell 0.46 percent or 35 cents to $75.87 a barrel. The August contract expired Tuesday at $77.44 a barrel.

Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 1.1 million barrels last week, and are above the upper limit of the average range. The growth followed 5.5 million barrels decline in crude oil and 1.6 million barrels gain in gasoline inventories a week earlier.