By Gina Lee
Investing.com - Oil prices were mixed in Asia on Wednesday morning, and are set to post their worst month and quarter on record as the first quarter of the year closed.
International Brent Oil Futures fell 1.86% to $25.87 by 10:11 PM ET (3:11 AM GMT), giving up its earlier gains. U.S. crude Oil WTI Futuresrose 0.49% to $20.58.
Overnight, the American Petroleum Institute (API) said that crude inventories rose by 10.485 million barrels to 461.9 million barrels last week. This was higher than analyst expectations of a 4-million-barrel increase and has raised concerns of an oversupply.
The bearish mood in the market was slightly improved from the Kremlin’s announcement on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump agreed to their top energy officials discussing stabilizing oil markets.
But with Russia and Saudi Arabia having free reign over production levels starting today, oil looks no closer to solving its dilemma of oversupply as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cut demand.
On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia and other members of OPEC were unable to come to an agreement to meet this month and discuss sliding prices.
"It is very unlikely that OPEC, with or without Russia or the United States, will agree a sufficient volumetric solution to offset oil demand losses," BNP Paribas (PA:BNPP) analyst Harry Tchilinguirian said in a report issued on Tuesday.