WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oil prices fell on Wednesday after data showed a larger than expected increase in U.S. crude inventories in the week ended February 23rd.
West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended down $0.33 or 0.42% at $78.54 a barrel.
Brent crude futures dropped to $83.32 a barrel, down $0.33 or about 0.4%.
Data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed oil inventories in the U.S. rose by 4.2 million barrels last week, nearly two times the expected increase.
Gasoline stockpiles dropped by 2.8 million barrels last week, while distillate stockpiles fell by 0.5 million barrels.
Data released by the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday revealed that U.S. crude oil inventories rose by 8.4 million barrels last week, much more than analyst expectations for a build of 1.8 million barrels.
The focus now is the upcoming meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies, collectively known as OPEC+.
The OPEC+ is widely expected to extend voluntary production cuts into the second quarter, and there are expectations in some sections that the cut could extend to the end of the year.
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