NEW YORK- Oil prices slipped in early Asian trading on Wednesday following a brief rebound in the previous session after industry data showed an unexpected build in US crude oil and gasoline inventories, offsetting global oil supply concerns.
Brent crude futures fell 21 cents, or 0.27 percent , to $76.27 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 25 cents, or 0.34 percent , to $72.95 per barrel.
US crude oil, gasoline and distillate inventories rose last week, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday.
Benchmarks slipped accordingly. Both WTI and Brent had bounced off multi-month lows to settle higher in the previous session.
The API figures showed crude stocks were up by 176,000 barrels in the week ended Aug. 2, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected crude stocks to fall by 700,000 barrels.
Gasoline inventories rose by 3.313 million barrels against analysts’ expectations for a 1 million bbl draw, while distillate stocks rose by 1.217 million barrels, a bigger build than anticipated.
On Monday, Brent futures slumped to their lowest since early January and WTI futures had touched their lowest since February, as a global stock market rout deepened on growing concerns of a potential recession in the US the world’s largest petroleum consumer.
