By Barani Krishnan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices dipped on Wednesday as data showing a large build in U.S. gasoline inventories prompted a selloff that killed an early rally on a surprise drop in U.S. crude stockpiles for a fourth straight week.
Brent crude (LCOc1) was down 3 cents at $45.94 a barrel by 11:03 a.m. EDT (1503 GMT). In earlier trading it had rallied by $1.22, or nearly 3 percent, to a session high of $47.19.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude (CLc1) fell 10 cents to $44.57, knocked off its session peak of $45.97.
Oil had also run up earlier on speculation that OPEC members gathered in Algeria could lay the foundation for a production-limiting deal in November.
U.S. crude inventories
Gasoline stocks
"A draw again in crude was a surprise but unleaded gasoline saw an unexpected build and that comes along with a decrease in gasoline demand," said Tariq Zahir, trader in crude oil spreads at Tyche Capital Advisors in New York.
"With the situation we are in with crude supplies, even though we have seen draws over the last few weeks, we're still well above five-year averages on inventories. So we expect any strength we see to get sold into and prices to drift to new lows after this as we get to quarter-end this weekend."