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The
price of Brent crude is up 35% this year supported by OPEC-led
supply curbs, even after oil last week suffered the steepest
weekly loss in months on worries that travel restrictions to
curb coronavirus infections would hit demand.
Brent crude was down 75 cents, or 1.1%, to $69.88 a barrel at
1126 GMT, following a 2.3% rally on Tuesday. U.S. West Texas
Intermediate (WTI) was down 81 cents, or 1.2%, to $67.48, after
a 2.7% jump on Tuesday.
The White House said in a statement on Wednesday that the Biden
administration had urged OPEC and its partners to boost
production. [nW1N2OE031] CNBC earlier reported the development.
Earlier on Wednesday, crude was trading above $70 as signs of
rising fuel demand in the United States offset concerns about
travel curbs in Asia caused by the COVID-19 Delta variant.
Industry data showed U.S. crude and gasoline inventories fell
last week, while the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
said U.S. job growth and increasing mobility had boosted
gasoline consumption so far this year. [API/S] [EIA/M]
"The EIA's upbeat demand forecasts for this year helped
alleviate fears of a deteriorating near-term outlook," said
Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM.
The Delta variant has been detected in more than a dozen Chinese
cities since the first cases there were found in July, prompting
some new travel restrictions, while U.S. cases and
hospitalisations have soared to six-month highs.
In focus later will be the EIA's official U.S. inventory figures
at 1430 GMT.
On Tuesday, industry group the American Petroleum Institute said
U.S. crude stocks fell by 816,000 barrels and gasoline stocks
dropped by 1.1 million barrels last week.
(Additional reporting by Sonali Paul and Florence Tan; editing
by Mark Potter and Jason Neely)
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