Oil slips ahead of EIA's weekly report

Oil continued to decline as the US market opened on Wednesday in a respite move after hitting yesterday the biggest daily gain since January, after preliminary data from the American Petroleum Institute showed a drop in US crude inventories, while investors await the official data on the US crude stocks and production levels in the weekly report of the US Energy Agency.

By 12:58 GMT, US crude fell to $53.80 a barrel from the opening of $54.08, with a high of $54.36 and a low of $53.70.

US crude gained 4.1% in yesterday's trading, the third gain in four days, and the biggest daily gain since January.

In preliminary data, the American Petroleum Institute announced yesterday that the US trade inventories fell by more than 0.8 million barrels during the week ending June 14, the first decline in the last three weeks, while experts expected a decline of about 2 million barrels.

Traders are looking for the official data on the trade inventories and production levels later today in the weekly report of the US Energy Agency.

As for the US production, it fell by about 100 thousand barrels per day in the previous week, bringing the total to 12.3 million barrels per day, leaving its all-time highest record level of 12.4 million, as the United States is currently the largest oil producer in the world.