Investing.com – WTI crude oil prices settled lower Thursday as a ramp up in imports led to an unexpected build in U.S. crude supplies, despite ongoing supply outages.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for July delivery fell 1.68% to settle at $72.94 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent fell 79 cents to trade at $77.45 a barrel.
Inventories of U.S. crude rose by 1.245 million barrels for the week ended June 30, confounding expectations for a draw of 5.20 million barrels, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The unexpected build in crude supplies came as the production shutdown at Canada's Syncrude - which has capacity to produce 350,000 barrels per day of oil and continues to drain North American crude supplies - was offset somewhat by rising crude imports.
Net U.S. crude imports rose by 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd), while refinery operations slipped to 97.1% of capacity from 97.5% a week earlier, the EIA said.
Gasoline inventories – one of the products that crude is refined into – fell by 1.505 million barrels, beating expectations for a draw of 0.817 million barrels, while supplies of distillate – the class of fuels that includes diesel and heating oil – rose by 0.134 million barrels, against expectations for a draw of 0.545 million barrels.
U.S. oil output, meanwhile, remained steady at 10.9 million bpd, according to the EIA.
Crude oil prices had hit a 3-1/2-year high earlier in the session, shrugging off U.S. President Trump's tweet on Wednesday, in which he claimed OPEC was doing "little" to lower oil prices.
Losses were limited, however, by a potential fall in Middle East crude supplies as Iran warned Wednesday it might block oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz - a major route for transporting crude in the Gulf.
"If they want to stop Iranian oil exports, we will not allow any oil shipment to pass through the Strait of Hormuz," Iran Revolutionary Guards commander Ismail Kowsari reportedly said.