Oil prices dipped on Thursday,weighed down by swelling U.S. crude inventories and recordweekly U.S. production which is countering efforts by producercartel OPEC to cut supplies and prop up prices.
Brent crude oil futures were at $73.21 per barrel at0150 GMT, down 15 cents, or 0.2 percent, from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 8cents, or 0.1 percent, at $67.85 per barrel. Prices were pulled down by a report from the U.S. EnergyInformation Administration (EIA) on Wednesday showing U.S. crudeinventories jumped by 6.2 million barrels to 435.96 millionbarrels in the week to April 27, marking a 2018high. "The (EIA) report showed a much larger than expected crudebuild for last week as well as an unexpected build in gasolineinventories," said William O'Loughlin, investment analyst atAustralia's Rivkin Securities. U.S. oil production also hit a fresh record of 10.62 millionbarrels per day (bpd), a jump of more than a quarter sincemid-2016. The United States now produces more crude oil than topexporter and OPEC-kingpin Saudi Arabia. Only Russia currently pumps more oil, at around 11 millionbpd. O'Loughlin said that relatively high oil prices, supportedby healthy demand and production cuts by the Organization of thePetroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to tighten markets, "areencouraging U.S. shale producers to continue ramping upproduction." OPEC produced around 32 million bpd of crude oil in April,according to a Reuters survey, implying that its production isslightly below its target of 32.5 million bpd, due largely toplunging output in Venezuela. BMI Research said it expects OPEC's output to remain stablearound or slightly above 32 million bpd for the rest of theyear. (Reporting by Henning Gloystein; editing by Richard Pullin)