Crude oil prices lower on US inventories numbers

Crude oil prices were lower on Wednesday, with West Texas Intermediate crude June contracts down $1.06 in early afternoon trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange to $62.11 per barrel. Meanwhile, June delivery Brent crude was 47 cents lower on the Intercontinental Exchange in London to $67.64 per barrel. The Brent June contract expired at the close of trade today.

The declines came as the US Energy Information Administration reported that crude oil, gasoline, and distillate stockpiles were all higher in the week ending May 11. Crude oil inventories were up by 1 million barrels to 342.2 million barrels, double the expected increase. Gasoline inventories added 1.7 million barrels to 195.2 million barrels, well above the expected increase of 900,000 barrels but still below the lower reaches of average for the time of year. Distillates inventories were up 1 million barrels to 119.8 million barrels during the week. While the increase in distillates was a bit less than the 1.2 million barrels expected, stockpiles of oil and diesel fuel remain at the upper boundary of average for this time of year.

Nymex gasoline futures were down 1.35 cents to $2.2881 per gallon, while Nymex heating oil dropped 4.69 cents to $1.8433 per gallon in the wake of the new EIA data. Natural gas prices were 3.6 cents lower to $7.828 per 1,000 cubic feet. However, the news didn’t have any effect on the at-the-pump price of gasoline in the United States, which hit a new record high for the fourth day in a row. Self-serve unleaded now averages $3.103 per gallon across the country, a gain of 2.3 percent in the past week and 8.6 percent in the past month.