In an unforeseen turn of events, oil prices dropped on Wednesday, July 18th 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 13th.
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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