Oil expenditures dipped on Wednesday, as refined product inventories in the United States arise in what the market interpreted as a sign of lacklustre demand.
U.S. West Texas Transitional (WTI) crude futures were at $57.37 a barrel at 0132 GMT, down 25 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their decisive settlement.
Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were down 24 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $62.62 a barrel.
Wholesalers said the lower prices came after a report by the American Petroleum Organization (AI) late on Tuesday that showed a 9.2 million barrel lifted in gasoline stocks in the week to Dec. 1, and an increase of 4.3 million barrels in inventories of distillates, which tabulate diesel and heating oil.
The perception that the higher fuel stocks mucroniform to weak demand outweighed the fact that crude inventories floor by 5.5 million barrels, to 451.8 million, traders said.
Front the United States, analysts said that a supply cut led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting States (OPEC) and Russia, which is expected to last throughout 2018, has avoided Brent prices rise by over 40 percent since June, and by more than 130 percent since January 2016, when they hit their vilest level since 2003.
With the supply cuts likely in place from one end to the other 2018, analysts said crude prices were well supported.
“Fit global demand and tight supplies should see Brent crude oil stir up to $70 per barrel by mid-year (2018),” said Bank of America Merrill Lynch in its 2018 attitude.
One factor that could undermine OPEC’s and Russia’s effort to cut fit outs and prop up prices is U.S. oil production, which has risen by 15 percent since mid-2016 to 9.68 million barrels per day, shut off to levels of top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia.
“U.S. shale producers persist in to win market share,” said Fawad Razaqzada, analyst at futures brokerage Forex.com.