Oil falls for third straight day ahead of EIA weekly report

Crude oil fell as the US market opened on Wednesday to continue its losses for the third straight day after preliminary data from the American Petroleum Institute showed US commercial inventories rose, contrary to the experts' expectations, whilst traders are waiting for the official data on the inventories and production levels in the weekly report of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) .

 By 12:02 GMT, US crude fell to $51.85 per barrel from the opening level of $53.01, with a high of $53.02 and a low of $51.46.

US crude lost 0.7% in yesterday's settlement, on the renewed fears of a global economic slowdown.

In preliminary data, the American Petroleum Institute (API) announced yesterday that the country's commercial inventories rose by 4.9 million barrels in the week ending June 7, the second weekly increase in a row, contrary to experts' expectations of a drop by 0.5 million barrels.

According to the data, total US commercial inventories rose to 482.4 million barrels, the highest level since July 2017, in a negative sign of demand levels in the world's largest oil consumer.

Traders are looking for official data on commercial stocks and production levels later in the weekly report of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), and expectations are for inventories to fall by about 1.0 million barrels.

While for production, it increased in the previous week by 100,000 barrels per day, the third weekly increase in a row, bringing the total to a new level of 12.4 million barrels per day, the highest level ever for production in the United States.