SINGAPORE: Oil fell in Asia on Wednesday after industry data showing an increase in US crude stocks added to oversupply worries and traders took advantage of a recent rally to book profits.
Prices had closed higher Tuesday on news that Iran was willing to join calls by OPEC and Russia for production curbs after scuttling previous efforts to reach a deal in April.
But the gains were reversed in Asian trade after data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) overnight showed US crude inventories rose by 4.5 million barrels in the week ending August 19, after falling by one million barrels the week before.
Rising stocks indicate weaker demand in the world’s top oil consuming nation and add to worries about a global crude supply glut.
“This jawboning (of oil prices) looks like it is rapidly being reversed in the wake of the weekly US API inventories number,” said Angus Nicholson, a Melbourne-based analyst with IG Markets.
A similar decline when the US energy department releases the official data on US commercial crude inventories later Wednesday could see WTI “pull back to the $45 handle,” he said in a note
