New York (Platts)--24Jun2015/418 pm EDT/2018 GMT

Oil futures declined across the board Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration reported gasoline and distillate stocks rose a combined 2.5 million barrels last week, while crude production continued rising.

NYMEX August crude settled 74 cents lower at $60.27/b, while ICE August Brent settled down 96 cents at $63.49/b.

In refined product activity, NYMEX July ULSD settled 3.51 cents lower at $1.8761/gal. NYMEX July RBOB settled down 2.11 cents at $2.0555/gal.

Oil futures turned higher after EIA data showed a decline in US commercial crude stocks of 4.934 million barrels, but prices quickly reversed course as the market digested the weekly inventory report.

"The crude draws are expected because it's seasonal destocking," Stephen Schork, publisher of the Schork Report, said.

"To have eight consecutive draws is extremely normal, but there was still a build in gasoline and a really big build in distillates."

Gasoline stocks rose 680,000 barrels, counter to analysts expectation of a nearly 600,000-barrel decline.

Distillate inventories increased 1.8 million barrels, about three times more than analysts' expectations.

"High refinery operations have inevitably contributed to increases in inventories in key refined products," BNP Paribas analysts said in a note.

Another statistic putting downward pressure on prices was crude production, which rose 15,000 b/d last week to 9.604 million b/d, EIA estimated. Moreover, continental US output rose 76,000 b/d to 9.2 million b/d.

Still rising US production helped drive US crude stocks to record highs earlier this year. Even after declining each week since May 8, US crude stocks stand 75 million barrels above year-ago levels.

"The fundamentals remain bearish. The world is awash in crude oil," Jim Williams, president of WTRG Economics, said.

--Geoffrey Craig, geoffrey.craig@platts.com
--Edited by Derek Sands, derek.sands@platts.com

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