Investing.com - Crude oil prices fell on Wednesday as a weakened tropical storm in the Gulf Coast eased concern about supply.
West Texas Crude oil futures slumped 1.56% to $68.78 a barrel as of 10:42 AM ET (14:42 GMT). Meanwhile Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., decreased 1.25% to $77.19.
The anticipated storm had driven prices higher on Tuesday after oil companies shut down dozens of oil rigs in anticipation of Tropical Storm Gordon. The storm was expected to strengthen into a hurricane, but weakened after making landfall and deviated away from oil-producing areas.
Oil prices have been driven higher in the past few months as demand for oil outsrips supply and upcoming U.S. sanctions against Iran have also supported price increases. The financial sanctions against Iran will target the petroleum sector in November, when a global drop of crude supply is expected. Data on oil rigs last week also supported prices, as drillers added oil rigs for the first time in three weeks, increasing the rig count by 2 to 862, according to weekly data from Baker Hughes.
Investors are also looking ahead to weekly inventories data, with analysts expecting a drop of 1.9 million barrels last week.
The American Petroleum Institute releases its supply reportat 4:30 PM ET (20:30 GMT) on Wednesday, a day later than usual because of the Labor Day holiday on Monday. Crude oil inventories are expected to come out on Thursday.
In other energy trading, Gasoline RBOB Futures fell 1.51% at $1.9585 a gallon, while heating oil was down 0.94% to $2.2334 a gallon. Natural gas futures inched up 0.21% to $2.829 per million British thermal units.