US crude falls ahead of EIA weekly report

US benchmark crude (WTI) prices fell on Wednesday, to head for the second daily loss in 3 days, after a surprise build in US crude inventories according to preliminary data by the API, while investors await the official US inventories data by the EIA later today, in addition to renewed trade fears over the US-China trade war.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell to $58.83 as of 13:14 GMT, after opening at $59.04, with a session-high of $59.14.

WTI closed higher by 0.3% on Tuesday $59.81 hit on Friday, and Brent crude futures fell by around 0.4%, after posted the highest since Sept.23 of $64.86 on Friday.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) revealed yesterday in preliminary data the US crude inventories rose by 1.4 million barrels during the week ending in December 6, the third weekly surge in a month, beating forecasts of drop by 2.8 by 0.4 million barrels.

While the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) will release today the official data on inventories and production levels in its weekly report, with forecasts for inventories to drop by 2.9 million barrels and for production to hold at total of 12.9 million barrels per day unchanged from the previous week.