Oil prices quelled on Wednesday, recuperating from a brief drop after data showed further increases in U.S. shale supply.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration released a report Wednesday, saying the amount of crude oil stored in the United States surged by 6.2 million barrels in the week to April 27. That was nearly double the 3.4-million-barrel jump projected by the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday.
Gasoline inventories also jumped by 1.2 million barrels. The increases were offset by a decrease of 3.9 million barrels in distillate fuel stockpiles, which include diesel.
Brent crude oil futures were down 25 cents at $72.88 U.S. per barrel late morning Wednesday, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 22 cents at $67.47 U.S. per barrel.
Rising inventories are partly due to soaring U.S. production, which jumped by a quarter in the last two years to 10.6 million bpd. The United States has since overtaken Saudi Arabia to become the world's second-biggest crude producer after Russia.
Concerns that the United States will reimpose sanctions on Iran continue to underpin the market. Oil prices spiked on Monday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressured the United States to scrap the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, but fell sharply on Tuesday as the dollar rose and the market's jitters over Netanyahu's speech eased.
Iran's oil exports hit 2.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in April, the Oil Ministry's news agency SHANA reported on Tuesday, a record since the lifting of sanctions in 2016, with China and India buying more than half of Iran's oil.
