Oil prices fall despite declining inventories

Oil prices shed earlier session gains on Wednesday as traders disregarded the falling crude stockpiles.

US crude supplies of last week lost 3.6 million barrels to 485.9 million barrels, 105.1 million barrels more than one year before, according to the weekly report of the Energy Information Agency Wednesday.

Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the US contract, added 0.4 million barrels to 59.4 million barrels.

US crude production dropped 38,000 to 9.164 million barrels a day last week, according to the EIA report.

The ample supplies continued to drag the market down. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided last Friday to keep crude production pumping at current level in the already oversupplied market.

The West Texas Intermediate for January delivery moved down 35 cents to settle at $37.16 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for January delivery decreased 15 cents to close at $40.11 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.