Oil prices snap rally after rise in US crude inventories

Oil prices pared gains on Wednesday after official data showed US crude oil inventories rose more than expected last week.

The US Energy Information Administration said domestic crude inventories rose by 2.0m barrels to 540.6m barrels in the week to 22 April, more than the 1.7m increase expected by analysts.

That was despite crude oil imports falling by 637,000 barrels per day (bpd) to an average of 7.6m bpd last week, as the report also showed.

US crude oil refinery inputs averaged more than 15.8m bpd, down 257,000 bpd on the previous week with refineries operating at 88.1% of their capacity.

At 1603 BST, West Texas Intermediate crude dipped 0.38% to $43.87 per barrel and Brent crude dropped 0.02% to $45.73 per barrel.

Oil prices had rallied earlier on Wednesday after data from the American Petroleum Institute released on Tuesday evening revealed US crude inventories decreased by 1.1m barrels last week.