Oil slips after US stocks swell to highest in almost a year

Singapore — Oil prices dipped on Thursday after US crude inventories increased to their highest level since December 2017 amid concerns of an emerging global glut, although an expected supply cut by producer cartel Opec prevented further drops.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures, were at $53.38 a barrel at 1.41am GMT, 25c, or 0.5% below their last settlement.

Front-month Brent crude oil futures were at $63.28 a barrel, down 20c, or 0.3%, from their last close.

US commercial crude oil inventories rose by 4.9-million barrels to 446.91-million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a weekly report on Wednesday. That was the highest level since December last year.

US crude oil production remained at a record 11.7-million barrels a day, the agency said.

“US inventory data … continued to show significant supply builds, which comes on the back of sustained record US crude oil production,” said Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia-Pacific at futures brokerage Oanda in Singapore.