Oil Continues to Decline Amid Increase in U.S. Inventories and Reduced Demand Concerns

Oil prices continued to decline for the third session, affected by a larger-than-expected increase in crude and gasoline inventories in the United States and declining supply concerns. As of 01:38 GMT, Brent crude futures fell by 41 cents, or 0.48%, to $85.41 per barrel. Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate crude dropped by 49 cents, or 0.59%, to $83 per barrel. Both benchmark crudes relinquished most of their gains at the beginning of the week. U.S. crude oil inventories rose by about 12.9 million barrels, according to market sources citing data from the American Petroleum Institute on Wednesday. This was significantly higher than the 500,000 barrel increase that analysts had expected in a Reuters survey. Data also showed that gasoline inventories rose by 3.6 million barrels, contradicting a decline of 800,000 barrels that analysts had predicted, raising concerns about slowing fuel demand in the United States.