* Global markets drop as key Trump adviser departs
* Gary Cohn opposed Trump plans for steel, aluminium tariffs
* Soaring U.S. crude ouutput, rising stocks also weigh
* U.S. crude output to rise to 11.17 mln bpd by Q4 - EIA
By Henning Gloystein
SINGAPORE, March 7 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Wednesday,pulled down by weaker sharemarkets after a key advocate for freetrade in the U.S. government resigned, triggering concerns thatWashington would go ahead with import tariffs and risk a tradewar.
Soaring U.S. crude oil production and rising inventorieswere also weighing on crude prices, traders said.
Gary Cohn, economic adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump,seen as a bulwark against protectionist forces within thegovernment, said on Tuesday he was resigning, triggering a morethan 1 percent fall in S&P 500 futures ESc1 in early Wednesdaytrade. oil futures followed suit.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $65.37 per barrel at0149 GMT, down 42 cents, or 0.6 percent from their previousclose.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 wereat $62.16 a barrel, down 44 cents, or 0.7 percent.
"The overhang from the Cohn resignation ... could see oilprices move lower during today's session," said Stephen Innes,head of trading for Asia/Pacific at futures brokerage OANDA inSingapore.
A voice for Wall Street in the White House, Cohn's move toresign came after he lost a fight over Trump's plans for heftysteel and aluminum import tariffs. powers, including the European Union and China, havewarned that such tariffs could lead to retaliatory action andtrigger a global trade war, which could grind to a halt economicgrowth and, by extension, oil consumption.
Traders said oil prices were also weighed by a reported risein U.S. crude oil inventories.
Crude inventories rose by 5.661 million barrels in the weekto 426.880 million barrels, data from the American PetroleumInstitute showed on Tuesday. data by the U.S. Energy Information Administration(EIA) is due to be published later on Wednesday.
Overall, oil supplies are ample despite efforts led by theOrganization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) andRussia to withhold output in order to prop up prices.
The EIA on Tuesday made its latest in a series of upwardrevisions for U.S. crude oil production C-OUT-T-EIA , which itnow expects to rise by more than 120,000 barrels per day (bpd)to 11.17 million bpd by the fourth quarter of 2018. would take the United States past Russia to become theworld's biggest oil producer. The U.S. already passed topexporter Saudi Arabia late last year. 2019, the EIA forecast a crude production increase of570,000 bpd to 11.27 million bpd.
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http://reut.rs/2EIuTWS
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