Investing.com - Oil prices pushed lower on Wednesday, after data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that domestic crude stockpiles declined less than expected last week.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures lost 61 cents, or around 1.08%, to $56.58 a barrel by 10:35 a.m. ET (14:35 GMT), pulling away from Monday's two-year peak of $57.55. Prices were at around $56.77 prior to the release of the inventory data.
Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., shed 65 cents, or about 0.96%, to $63.09 a barrel, off a two-year high of $64.42 hit on Tuesday.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that crude oil inventories fell by 2.2 million barrels in the week ended November 3.
Market analysts' expected a crude-stock loss of around 2.9 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported a 1.6 million barrel decline, disappointing expectations for a drawback of 2.7 million barrels.
Supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, the key delivery point for Nymex crude, increased by 720,000 barrels last week, the EIA said.
The report also showed that gasoline inventories dropped by 3.3 million barrels, compared to expectations for a decline of 1.9 million barrels. For distillate inventories including diesel, the EIA reported a fall of 3.4 million barrels.
Oil prices were boosted earlier in the week by potential supply disruptions following a number of corruption arrests that targeted royal family members and ministers in Saudi Arabia.
The weekend purge included a wave of arrests of Saudi Arabian princes, businessmen and government ministers in what has been billed as an anticorruption crackdown but is seen by some as a consolidation of power by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.
Saudi Arabia is among the world’s top producers of oil and OPEC’s most influential member.
Prices have also been supported in recent weeks by expectations that oil producing countries will agree to extend an output cut at their meeting at the end of this month.
Under the original terms of the deal, OPEC and 10 other non-OPEC countries led by Russia agreed to cut production by 1.8 million barrels a day (bpd) for six months. The agreement was extended in May of this year for a period of nine more months until March 2018 in a bid to reduce global oil inventories and support oil prices.
Discussions are continuing in the run-up to the Nov. 30 meeting, which oil ministers from OPEC and the participating non-OPEC countries will attend.
Elsewhere, gasoline futures were down 0.15% at $1.804 a gallon, while natural gas futures gained 0.67% to $3.175 per million British thermal units.