In an unforeseen turn of events, oil prices dropped on Wednesday, July 18^th 2018 as U.S. crude inventories rose last week, resisting analysts’ expectations of a further decline in supply.

Brent futures were down 31 cents or 0.4 percent at $71.85 a barrel by 0240 GMT. They rose 32 cents to $72.16 a barrel on Tuesday, after earlier touching a three month low.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) cruse was down 36 cent or 0.5 percent, at $67.72. It settled up 2 cents at $68.08 a barrel the session before, coming off a nearly one-month low

Previously, labor strikes in Norway, and a decline in inventories injected distress in the market, causing price hikes. Supply disruption from Venezuela contributed further as analysts forecasted a decline of 3.6 million barrels in U.S. inventories for the week through July 13^th.

However with the rise of more than 600,000 barrels in U.S. crude stockpiles, the prices came back down as the market relaxed.

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