Oil prices fall on rising U.S. crude inventories, record production

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices dipped on Thursday, weighed down by swelling U.S. crude inventories and record weekly U.S. production which is countering efforts by producer cartel OPEC to cut supplies and prop up prices.

Brent crude oil futures were at $73.21 per barrel at 0150 GMT, down 15 cents, or 0.2 percent, from their last close.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 8 cents, or 0.1 percent, at $67.85 per barrel.

Prices were pulled down by a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday showing U.S. crude inventories jumped by 6.2 million barrels to 435.96 million barrels in the week to April 27, marking a 2018 high.

"The (EIA) report showed a much larger than expected crude build for last week as well as an unexpected build in gasoline inventories," said William O'Loughlin, investment analyst at Australia's Rivkin Securities.

U.S. oil production also hit a fresh record of 10.62 million barrels per day (bpd), a jump of more than a quarter since mid-2016.

The United States now produces more crude oil than top exporter and OPEC-kingpin Saudi Arabia.

Only Russia currently pumps more oil, at around 11 million bpd.

O'Loughlin said that relatively high oil prices, supported by healthy demand and production cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to tighten markets, "are encouraging U.S. shale producers to continue ramping up production."

OPEC produced around 32 million bpd of crude oil in April, according to a Reuters survey, implying that its production is slightly below its target of 32.5 million bpd, due largely to plunging output in Venezuela.

BMI Research said it expects OPEC's output to remain stable around or slightly above 32 million bpd for the rest of the year.

(Reporting by Henning Gloystein; editing by Richard Pullin)