US weekly crude inventories rise more than expected, EIA reveals

US crude inventories rose more than expected to a record high last week, according to government data on Wednesday.

The Energy Information Administration reported US crude stocks rose by 9.4 million barrels to 532.5 million barrels in the week ended 18 March. Analysts had forecast an increase of 2.5 million barrels.

Weekly production fell by about 30,000 barrels per day, EIA said.

Crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.8 million barrels per day, down 176,000 barrels per day on the previous week’s average.

At 1553 GMT West Texas Intermediate crude dropped 3.1% to $40.20 per barrel and Brent slid 2.3% to $40.82 per barrel.

The data follows a report from the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday which showed US crude inventories increased 8.8 million barrels last week, almost three times higher than the average estimate in a Reuters poll of analysts.