Investing.com - West Texas Intermediate oil futures backed off session highs Wednesday, despite data showing that oil supplies in the U.S. fell for the third consecutive week last week.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil for July delivery was last at $58.31 a barrel, up 0.5% for the day. Prices were at around $58.77 prior to the release of the inventory data.
Brent crude for July delivery, the global benchmark, pulled back to $64.47 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange from $64.92 earlier.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 2.674 million barrels in the week ended May 15, compared to forecast for a decline of 1.029 million barrels.
Total U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 482.2 million barrels as of last week the EIA said, the highest level for this time of year in at least 80 years.
Gasoline stocks fell by 2.77 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations for a 729,000-barrel drop.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 546,000 barrels, against expectations for a 43,000 barrel increase, the EIA said.
The report came after the American Petroleum Institute said Tuesday in its inventory report for last week that stockpiles decreased by 5.2 million barrels, while gasoline stocks fell by 1.2 million barrels and distillate inventories rose by 187,000 barrels.
U.S. crude inventories have now fallen for three consecutive weeks after hitting record highs in April.
U.S. oil prices have staged a recent rebound after a slide of 50% to six year lows earlier in the year amid mounting expectations that U.S. shale oil production is close to a peak and will start to decline later in 2015.
But global oil production is still outstripping demand following a boom in U.S. shale oil production and after OPEC's decision last year not to cut production.