Oil surrenders previous gains after US inventory data

Oil prices fell during today's trading, erasing earlier gains, despite a release of lower than expected US inventory data.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed a decline in US crude inventories by about 3.1 million barrels last week compared to expectations of a decline by 2 million barrels.

While the American Petroleum Institute announced in preliminary data a decline in US oil inventories by 812 thousand barrels.

Separately, the dollar index (against a number of major currencies) fell by 0.2% to 97.4 points at 16:49 GMT, reaching a high of 97.6 points and a low of 97.3 points.

In terms of trading, by 16:44 GMT, West Texas fell by 0.2% to $53.8 per barrel, with a high of $54.3 and a low of $53.2.

Brent fell 0.1% to $62.08 per barrel, with a high of $62.5 and a low of $61.4.