Investing.com - Crude prices pushed lower 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.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its official weekly oil supplies report for the week ended March 30 at 10:30AM ET (1430GMT), amid expectations for a gain of 1.4 million barrels.
After markets closed Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said that U.S. oil inventories fell by 3.3 million barrels last week, as refineries boosted output.
However, the API report also showed a 1.1 million barrel rise in gasoline stocks, while distillate stocks, which include motor diesel and heating oil, fell by about 2.2 million barrels.
There are often sharp divergences between the API estimates and the official figures from EIA.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate WTI crude futures lost 56 cents, or roughly 0.9%, to $62.95 a barrel by 4:05AM ET (0805GMT).
Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., declined 56 cents, or 0.8%, to $67.56 a barrel.
Oil prices ended modestly higher on Tuesday, as investors took comfort in OPEC's ongoing efforts to drain the market of excess supplies.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday that a joint organization between OPEC and non-OPEC members may be set up after the current deal on production cuts expires.
In November last year, OPEC and other producers, including Russia agreed to cut output by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) to slash global inventories to the five year-average. The arrangement is set to expire at the end of 2018.
But their efforts have been somewhat stifled by rising output by U.S. shale producers, who aren’t participating in the accord.
Domestic oil production rose to an all-time high of 10.43 million bpd last week, staying above Saudi Arabia's output levels and within reach of Russia, the world's biggest crude producer.
In other energy trading, gasoline futures dipped 0.5% to $1.961 a gallon, while heating oil shed 0.9% to $1.977 a gallon.
Natural gas futures held steady at $2.699 per million British thermal units.