Investing.com - Oil prices added to losses during North American hours on Wednesday, falling to the lowest levels of the session after data showed that crude supplies rose the third straight week.
Crude oil for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down 63 cents, or 1.38%, at $45.18 a barrel by 10:33AM ET (15:33GMT). Prices were at around $45.38 prior to the release of the inventory data.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that crude oil inventories rose by 5.3 million barrels in the week ended November 11. Market analysts' expected a crude-stock gain of 1.5 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported a supply increase of 3.7 million barrels.
Supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, the key delivery point for Nymex crude, increased by 691,000 barrels last week, the EIA said.
Total U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 490.3 million barrels as of last week, which the EIA considered to be “historically high levels for this time of year”.
The report also showed that gasoline inventories increased by 0.7 million barrels, compared to expectations for a decline of 0.4 million barrels.
For distillate inventories including diesel, the EIA reported a gain of 0.3 million barrels.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for January delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London shed 54 cents, or 1.15%, to $46.41 a barrel.
Oil traders continued to weigh prospects of a coordinated production cut among major global oil producers.
An informal meeting of OPEC members is likely to be convened in the Qatari capital, Doha, on Friday to build consensus over decisions taken by the group in September, an Algerian energy source said on Wednesday.
Prices rallied nearly 6% on Tuesday amid reports that several OPEC members were engaged in a last-minute push to overcome divisions between the cartel’s biggest producers.
The oil group reached an agreement to cap output to a range of 32.5 million to 33.0 million barrels per day in talks held in Algeria in late September. However, OPEC said it won’t finalize details on individual output quotas until its next official meeting in Vienna on November 30.
The cartel pumped 33.64 million barrels of crude per day in October. The figures added to skepticism over the implementation of a planned deal by OPEC to limit production.
The possibility that producers could walk away empty-handed from the November meeting looms large after Iraq, Iran, Nigeria and Libya all signaled they might not take part in the proposed production cut deal. Russia’s unclear stance is also fueling uncertainty.