Crude oil futures fell on Wednesday after US crude oil stockpiles rose more than expected last week thanks to strong imports and relatively low production of petroleum products as US refineries underwent seasonal maintenance.
The Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the department of energy, said US commercial crude inventories rose 2.1m barrels to 340.7m, the highest level in about seven years. The rise contrasts with analyst expectations of an increase of less than 1m barrels.
The higher inventories were boosted by a rise in oil imports by 769,000 barrels a day to 10.1m b/d, far outpacing an increase in refinery runs of 85,000 b/d to 14.73 m b/d, according to the report.
West Texas Intermediate for May delivery was down 22 cents at $65.85 a barrel in late morning trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange. May Brent added 12 cents to $65.01 a barrel in late afternoon London trade.
The relatively low refinery activity contributed to a decline in US petrol stockpiles of 5.4m barrels, the biggest one-week drop since August 2003, to 216.2m barrels. Analysts had expected a fall in petrol supplies of 1.3m barrels.
The larger than expected fall pushed US gasoline futures higher. Nymex April gasoline futures added 2.8 cents to $1.9125 a gallon.
Gold recovered from a setback earlier in the day. The fall was triggered by the Federal Reserve?s decision to increase US interest rates by a quarter point to 4.75 per cent on Tuesday, which initially lifted the dollar.
Bullion fell to a intra-day low of $560 a troy ounce, before rising to $568.50/$569.20 a troy ounce in late London trade, up almost $4 on the day.
Silver broke through the $11 an ounce level for the first time in 22 years as it continued its succession of highs on expectations of a new silver-backed exchange-traded fund. The metal reached a peak of $11.06 an ounce, and in doing so has exceeded most metal analysts forecasts made at the start of the year.
Copper hit a record high for a fifth successive day, peaking at $5,357 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange. The recent surge in copper prices has been triggered by strikes at copper mines in Mexico, threats to supply at the Grasberg copper and gold mine in Indonesia and a slide in copper inventories in warehouses registered with the LME, breaking a trend of rising stockpiles.
The three-month LME zinc price remained near its record high, peaking at $2,628 a tonne, just $2 below its record struck earlier in the week.
Frozen orange juice futures reached their highest level since 1992 on commodity fund buying sparked by tight supplies. The benchmark May contract on the New York Board of Trade reached a high of 151.50 a lb.
