Oil prices continued to get bruised on Wednesday as a spike in U.S. inventories added to the global glut and investors discounted the possibility of an output cut by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at this week's meeting.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said stockpiles moved skyward by about 1.2 million barrels in the week through Nov. 27, bringing total American storage to 489.4 million barrels, near a modern-day high.
The EIA also said total motor gasoline stocks rose by about 100,000 barrels.
Data from the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday had suggested a 1.6-million-barrel rise in U.S. crude inventories last week to 489.9 million barrels.
Current oil production is substantially outpacing demand and the growing global surplus has sent prices tumbling by more than 60% since June 2014.
OPEC, however, is not expected to budge from its stance of keeping output high to defend market share against producers such as Russia and North America.
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