Crude inventories high, but distillates down

Crude oil prices fell by over a dollar per barrel as the weekly Wednesday inventories data revealed that supplies have hit a six-year high.

In London, IPE Brent lost early gains after the weekly report was released, to fall $1.08 to $48.30 per barrel by late afternoon. West Texas Intermediate June contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $1.40 in early trade, to $47.55 per barrel. With both inventories and the dollar higher, WTI has lost more than 7 percent in value in the past week.

U.S. Department of Energy figures showed that crude oil stockpiles were up by 4.3 million barrels on the week, to a total of 334 million barrels. Imports were an average of 10.9 million barrels per day, up from 867,000 barrels per day last week.

The data also showed gasoline inventories up by 1.1 million barrels for the week. This increase was due in part to increased refining in reaction to the increased crude stockpiles.

Meanwhile, distillate inventories were down by 0.2 million barrels for the week, an amount that is in the low range of usual declines for this time of year.