Oil futures dropped below $102 on Wednesday to log their lowest settlement in more than three months after the U.S. government reported that crude supplies last week jumped about three times more than the market expected.
Crude oil for November delivery lost $1.88, or 1.8%, to settle at $101.61 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices traded around $102 shortly before the government supply report.
Tracking the most-active futures contracts, the settlement was the lowest since July 3, according to FactSet.
The latest petroleum-supply report may be the last until the government shutdown is over. An EIA spokesman said Monday that he expects this week’s reports to be released on schedule, and by the end of this week, could offer information regarding next week’s reports.
Dollar-denominated oil prices were already weighed down by a stronger dollar Wednesday and by the increase in crude supplies reported by the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday, but the EIA data provided an “even bigger shock” than the API data, said Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst at GFT Markets, in an email. Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group, reported a 2.8 million-barrel climb in crude supplies.
On Nymex, November gasoline closed at $2.62 a gallon, down less than a penny, or 0.3%, and heating oil for November delivery fell 1.5 cents, or 0.5%, to $3.02 a gallon.