Oil falls below $59

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories rose by 7.7 million to a record 425.64 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 13, said the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The build was the biggest weekly addition in barrels since records began in 1982, exceeding analysts’ expectations of a 3.2 million barrel rise.
Gasoline stocks rose by 485,000 barrels compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 167,000 barrels gain. Distillate stockpiles fell by 3.8 million barrels, versus expectations for a 2.1 million barrels drop. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose 3.66 million to 46.26 million barrels, the EIA data showed.
Benchmark Brent crude futures LCOc1 for April were down $1.83 at $58.70 by 1618 GMT (11:18 a.m. EST), having hit an intraday low of $57.80 earlier in the session, extending declines from Tuesday’s two-month high of $63.
U.S. crude for March delivery CLc1 was down $2.05 at $50.09 a barrel after falling as low as $49.15. The contract expires on Friday.
The EIA data was a day late this week because of a U.S. holiday on Monday.
“The report (is) basically bearish because you continue to add crude to storage, showing it will take some time for the drops in rig counts to have an impact on supply,” said Gene McGillian, analyst at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut. (Reuters)