Oil prices fall as US inventories swell

Oil prices slid Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration said that crude oil stockpiles were higher last week.

In midday trade, February contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were down 99 cents to $79.80 per barrel after going as low as $78.37 per barrel earlier in the session in the New York Mercantile Exchange, while at last report February Brent crude had dropped $1.91 to $77.39 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

New numbers issued by the EIA showed that crude oil stockpiles in the United States added 3.7 million barrels last week, while gasoline inventories were up 3.8 million barrels and distillates in storage, including heating oil and diesel fuel, were up 1.4 million barrels.

Crude oil in storage was expected to rise by just 1.9 million barrels, while gasoline inventories were expected to go up by 1.6 million barrels and distillates were expected to reduce stockpiles by 1.7 million barrels.

At mid-morning in New York, Nymex February gasoline futures were 6 cents lower to $2.04 per gallon while February heating oil had dropped 5 cents to $2.09 per gallon.

Metals prices were mixed on the session.

March copper was up 5 cents to $3.40 per pound in New York trade while three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange dropped $50 to $7,417.50 per tonne on the news that Chile’s state-owned copper miner will spend $2.3 billion this year getting at new reserves in existing mines.

Other LME base metals prices were mixed, with aluminium and nickel up but lead, tin and zinc all lower on the session.

Among precious metals, February gold added $8.60 to $1,138 per troy ounce in New York trade, while March silver was up 15 cents to $18.40 per troy ounce, but April platinum dropped $2.60 to $1,567 per troy ounce.

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