Investing.com - Crude oil prices settled lower as data showed U.S. crude supplies resumed their expansion, while domestic producers continued to raise output, threatening OPEC and its allies efforts to curb excess stockpiles.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for May delivery fell 1.3% cents to settle at $64.38 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent lost 0.9% to trade at $69.52 a barrel.
Inventories of U.S. crude rose by 1.643 million barrels for the week ended March 23, confounding expectations for a decline of 287,000 barrels, according to data from the Energy Information Agency (EIA).
Gasoline inventories – one of the products that crude is refined into – fell by 3.472 million barrels, topping expectations for a decline of 1.954 million barrels, while supplies of distillate – the class of fuels that includes diesel and heating oil – fell by 2.090 million barrels, beating expectations for a decline of 1.618 million barrels.
The build in crude inventories comes amid a slowdown in refinery activity – which tends to reduce demand for crude – as refiners remained in a period of maintenance.
The ramp up in U.S. production, meanwhile, continued as the EIA confirmed domestic production rose to 10.43 million barrels a day, renewing investor fears that rising domestic output will dent OPEC and its allies efforts to cut global supplies to the five-year average.
In November last year, OPEC and other producers, including Russia agreed to cut output by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in an effort to combat the oversupply issue that has pressured prices over the last two years.
Despite the three-day slump in crude prices so far this week, crude futures were set to notch a monthly gain in March amid a sharp rally seen earlier this month.