* Brent and U.S. crude concede most of Tuesday's gains
* Dollar hits 3-month highs, weighs on oil even before EIA
data
* Gasoline down 4 pct as trade ignores EIA gasoline drawdown
* Market focuses instead of rising crude builds
* EIA says US crude stocks rose 2.85 mln bbls last week
(Adds settlement prices, comparison with Tuesday's gains)
By Barani Krishnan
NEW YORK, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Crude oil futures fell 4 percent
on Wednesday, wiping out gains from the previous day's rally, as
a strong dollar, tumbling gasoline prices and rising U.S. crude
inventories bore down on the market.
Adding to bearish sentiment was an internal OPEC document
published by Reuters that showed weaker demand in the next few
years for oil from the producer group, even as Saudi Arabia
pumped near record levels to protect its market share.
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N12Z2NP
Brent crude futures LCOc1 settled down $1.96, or 3.9
percent, at $48.58 a barrel. It had risen $1.75 on Tuesday.
U.S. crude CLc1 closed down $1.58, or 3.3 percent, at
$46.32. It gained $1.76 in the previous session.
Oil had rallied on Tuesday on the back of a Brazilian oil
workers strike, supply constraints in Libya and a U.S. pipeline
outage.
In Wednesday's session, the dollar rose to three-month highs
against a basket of currencies .DXY as remarks from Federal
Reserve Chair Janet Yellen intensified bets the central bank
would raise interest rates next month if U.S. economic growth
continued to improve. A strong dollar makes commodities
denominated in the greenback, such as oil, less affordable for
holder of other currencies. USD/
"The bottom line is we are still well supplied," said Tariq
Zahir, trader in crude oil spreads Tyche Capital Advisors in New
York. "With the U.S. dollar strong on us, there are serious
headwinds for crude."
U.S. crude inventories rose for the sixth consecutive week,
adding 2.85 million barrels last week, in line with forecasts,
despite a drop in imports to the lowest level since 1991, the
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said. EIA/S
U.S. gasoline futures RBc1 tumbled almost 4 percent,
buckling down from Tuesday's 5 percent rally, despite the EIA
reporting a larger-than-expected 3.3 million-barrel draw in
stockpiles of the motor fuel last week.
With autumn refinery maintenance season coming to an end,
refinery utilization rates rose by 1.1 percentage points to 88.7
percent of capacity.
"Oil inventories have built by a fairly chunky amount
despite refinery utilization increasing, and imports dropping,"
said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at energy
database and consultancy ClipperData.
"Here we are, mired in the $40 levels, while production
ticks higher and inventories stand at over 100 million barrels
higher than this time last year."
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Chart on Brent oil http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/US/2/PVB_20150411084110.png
Chart on U.S. oil http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/US/2/PVB_20150411082706.png
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