Investing.com - Crude oil prices continued to trade at multi-week lows on Thursday, as investors remained cautious following news of an increase in U.S. stockpiles last week and as the U.S. dollar continued to move higher.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude April contract was down $1.23 or about 1.95% at $60.42 a barrel by 10:25 a.m. ET (14:25 GMT), the lowest since February 15.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for April delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London lost $1.27 or about 1.95% to $63.471 a barrel, also the lowest since February 15.
Oil prices remained under pressure after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday that crude oil inventories rose by 3.019 million barrels for the week ended Feb. 23, exceeding expectations for a rise of 2.4 million barrels.
The report also showed that gasoline inventories rose by 2.483 million barrels, confounding expectations for a decline of 190,000 barrels.
The massive build in gasoline stockpiles garnered most of the attention as some market participants had expected that a slowdown in refinery activity - as refiners enter period of maintenance - would lead to fall in gasoline supplies.
The data came a day after the American Petroleum Institute reported a 933,000 barrels increase in last week's crude oil stockpiles, albeit less than the expected increase of 2.7 million barrels.
Fears that rising U.S. output could dampen global efforts to rid the market of excess supplies have systematically limited oil prices' gains recently.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), along with some non-OPEC members led by Russia, agreed in December to extend oil output cuts until the end of 2018.
The deal to cut oil output by 1.8 million barrels a day (bpd) was adopted last winter by OPEC, Russia and nine other global producers. The agreement was due to end in March 2018, having already been extended once.
Oil prices were also hit by growing expectations for more aggressive rate hikes by the Federal Reserve this year, which pushed the U.S. dollar higher.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.22% at 90.81, the highest since January 12.
A stronger greenback often weighs on prices for dollar-denominated commodities.
Elsewhere, gasoline futures were down 2.16% at $1.885 a gallon, while natural gas futures gained 1.09% to $2.696 per million British thermal units.