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NEW YORK - Oil fell below US$67 a barrel today after a US government report showed a build in crude inventories in the world's top consumer.
London Brent, seen for now as more representative of global prices than US oil, was off 78 cents at US$66.22 a barrel by 1756 GMT, after falling 65 cents on Tuesday.
US crude was down 95 cents at US$63.45, after trading down to US$63.05 earlier.
US crude oil inventories rose by 1.1 million barrels last week even as refinery use climbed, the Energy Information Administration said, slightly higher than analyst forecasts of a 1 million barrel rise.
"The EIA data showing crude stocks rose last week was within market expectations and as such you are seeing a sell-off," said Mark Waggoner of Excel Futures in Huntington Beach, California.
Meanwhile, stocks of petrol dropped for a 12th straight week, down 1.1 million barrels. Petrol prices have helped to support crude oil in recent weeks, but recent refinery problems have also reduced US crude demand.
Claude Mandil, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said prices were too high and global stockpiles were too low.
"Stocks are not building. There is not enough oil in the market," Mandil told reporters in Riyadh.
But the secretary-general of the oil producing group Opec said there no need to increase supplies.
"The market is very stable," said Abdullah al-Badri.
Technical analysts, who predict future movements on the basis of past performance, said the market was looking more bearish.
"The recent patterns are showing strong selling at the resistance levels and we would not exclude further offloading of positions," said Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix.
- REUTERS
