Oil prices came off their lows on Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly inventories data.
Brent futures traded down 41 cents, or 0.6%, from their previous close at $65.10 U.S. per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $62.26 U.S. a barrel, down 34 cents, or 0.5% Wednesday morning Both Brent and WTI were trading down by more than 1% prior to the data release.
The EIA said U.S. crude inventories increased by 2.4 million barrels the previous week, less than the American Petroleum Institute's reported 5.66-million build. The EIA also reported gasoline barrels tailing off 800,000.
Overall, oil supplies are ample despite efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to withhold output in order to prop up prices.
The EIA on Tuesday revised U.S. crude oil production, which it now expects to rise by more than 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 11.17 million bpd by the fourth quarter of 2018.
That would take the United States past Russia to become the world's biggest oil producer. The U.S. already passed top exporter Saudi Arabia late last year.
For 2019, the EIA forecast a crude production increase of 570,000 bpd to 11.27 million bpd.
