Investing.com - Oil prices struggled near April lows in European trade on Wednesday, holding in bear market territory as investors looked ahead to fresh weekly information on U.S. stockpiles of crude and refined products.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its weekly report on oil supplies at 14:30GMT, or 10:30AM ET, Wednesday amid expectations for a drop of 1.4 million barrels.
Gasoline inventories are expected to decline by 200,000 barrels while stocks of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, are forecast to fall by 482,000 barrels, according to analysts.
After markets closed Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said that U.S. oil inventories fell by 1.3 million barrels in the week ended July 29. It also showed a decline of 450,000 barrels in gasoline stocks. For distillate inventories including diesel, API reported an increase of 539,000 barrels.
Crude oil for September delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell to a session low of $39.38 a barrel. It was last at $39.53 by 07:54GMT, or 3:54AM ET, up 2 cents, or 0.05%.
A day earlier, New York-traded oil sank to $39.26, a level not seen since April 18. WTI crude futures are nearly 23% lower from their 2016 highs above $50 a barrel scaled in early June, technically placing it in bear market territory, as signs of an ongoing recovery in U.S. drilling activity combined with elevated stocks of fuel products weighed.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange in London, Brent oil for October delivery inched down 3 cents, or 0.07%, to $41.77 a barrel, after falling to a more than three-month low of $41.51 on Tuesday.
London-traded Brent futures are down almost 21% since peaking at $52.80 in early June, as prospects of increased exports from Middle Eastern and North African producers, such as Iraq, Nigeria and Libya, added to concerns that a glut of oil products will cut demand for crude by refiners.
Supply from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has risen to 33.41 million barrels per day (bpd) in July from a revised 33.31 million bpd in June, according to a survey based on shipping data and information from industry sources.