Investing.com - Crude prices edged lower for the first time in three sessions on Wednesday, as investors looked ahead to fresh weekly data on U.S. commercial crude inventories to gauge the strength of demand in the world’s largest oil consumer and how fast output levels will continue to rise.
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate crude futures dipped 20 cents, or about 0.3%, to $65.31 a barrel by 4:10AM ET (0810GMT). The U.S. benchmark scored a 3.3% gain in the last session.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its official weekly oil supplies report for the week ended April 6 at 10:30AM ET (1430GMT), amid expectations for a decline of around 0.2 million barrels.
After markets closed Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said that U.S. oil inventories rose by 1.8 million barrels last week.
The API report also showed a 2.0 million barrel increase in gasoline stocks, while distillate stocks, which include motor diesel and heating oil, fell by about 3.8 million barrels.
There are often sharp divergences between the API estimates and the official figures from EIA.
Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., shed 21 cents, or roughly 0.3%, to $70.83 a barrel.
Brent surged more than 3% on Tuesday to hit its highest level since late 2014, at $71.33 a barrel, boosted by the possibility of an American military strike on Syria.
While Syria is not a significant oil producer itself, the wider Middle East is the world's most important crude exporter and tension in the region tends to put oil markets on edge.
There are also concerns that the United States could renew sanctions against Iran, a major Middle East oil producer.
In other energy trading, gasoline futures slipped 0.3% to $2.027 a gallon, while heating oil fell 0.3% to $2.058 a gallon.
Natural gas futures inched up 0.4% to $2.667 per million British thermal units.