Oil Stays Lower Despite Surprise Drawdown In U.S. Crude Stocks

Crude prices struggled on Wednesday, staying lower even after data showed that U.S. oil stockpiles fell unexpectedly last week.

Instead, the commodity was influenced by broader risk-off sentiment in the wake of China's announced countermeasures against the latest U.S. tariffs.

New York-traded WTI crude futures lost 92 cents, or roughly 1.5%, to $62.59 a barrel by 10:35AM ET (1435GMT). Prices were at around $62.40 prior to the release of the inventory data.

Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., declined 76 cents, or 1.1%, to $67.36 a barrel.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that crude oil inventories declined by 4.6 million barrels in the week ended March 30.

That compared with analysts' expectations for a gain of around 1.4 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported a supply-drop of 3.3 million barrels.

Supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, the key delivery point for Nymex crude, rose by 3.6 million barrels last week, the EIA said.

Total U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 425.3 million barrels as of last week, which the EIA considered to be in the lower half of the average range for this time of year.

Domestic oil production - driven by shale extraction - rose about 0.3% to a fresh all-time high of 10.46 million barrels per day, keeping it above Saudi Arabia's output levels and within reach of Russia, the world's biggest crude producer.

Analysts and traders have recently warned that booming U.S. shale oil production could potentially derail OPEC's effort to end a supply glut.

The report also showed that gasoline inventories decreased by 1.1 million barrels, compared to expectations for a decline of 1.2 million barrels. For distillate inventories including diesel, the EIA reported a gain of 0.5 million barrels.