Investing.com – Crude oil prices settled lower on Thursday as traders fretted over a sharp rebound in US production which offset data showing crude supplies fell for the ninth-straight week.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for February delivery fell 2 cents to settle at $63.95 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent fell 0.12% to trade at $69.30 a barrel.
Crude oil prices pared gains heading into settlement as traders weighed a sharp rebound in production against a fall in crude supplies for the ninth week in a row while an unexpected fall in product inventories failed to lift sentiment.
Following a weather-related drop in the previous week, U.S. crude production rose by 258,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 9.75 million barrels per day last week, the Energy Information Agency (EIA) reported. US output is expected to rise above 10 million bpd in the coming weeks.
Inventories of U.S. crude fell by roughly 6.86 million barrels for the week ended Jan. 12, beating expectations for of a draw of 3.54 million barrels.
Gasoline inventories – one of the products that crude is refined into – rose by 3.62 million barrels, slightly above expectations for a rise of 3.43 million barrels, while supplies of distillate – the class of fuels that includes diesel and heating oil – unexpectedly fell by 3.89 million barrels, confounding expectations for a rise of 86,000 barrels.
Fears over an uptick in US production were underscored in OPEC's monthly report as the oil cartel warned that higher oil prices are “bringing more supply to the market, particularly in North America and specifically tight oil.”
OPEC forecasts total non-OPEC to reach 58.8 million bpd in 2018, while global oil demand growth is expected to rise to 1.5 million bpd.