The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Wednesday reported an increase of 5.202 million barrels of crude oil in U.S. inventories for the week ending May 26.

Analysts expected a decline of 1.22 million barrels for this week.

The API reported a drop of 6.799 million barrels in the previous week.

Crude oil futures prices continued to fall on Wednesday amid concerns over oil demand.

The West Texas Intermediate for July delivery decreased 1.37 U.S. dollars, or 1.97 percent, to settle at 68.09 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for July delivery lost 88 cents, or 1.20 percent, to settle at 72.66 U.S. dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

Weaker macroeconomic and labor market data weighed on investors’ sentiment though oil demand has seasonal tailwind in summer.

World average daily oil demand is likely to approach 102 million barrels in June while global daily oil production would fall back to 100 million barrels in the second quarter of 2023 from around 101 million barrels in the first quarter.
Source: Xinhua