US crude oil inventories up last week: API

HOUSTON, Aug 10 (Bernama) -- The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported an increase of 2.156 million barrels of crude oil in US inventories for the week ending Aug 5, Xinhua reported.

Analysts expected a hike of about 73,000 barrels for this week.

The API reported a surge of 2.165 million barrels in the previous week.

Oil prices declined on Tuesday, over rising prospects of more Iranian oil exports due to the progress in Iran nuclear talks.

The West Texas Intermediate for September delivery dipped 26 cents, or 0.29 per cent, to settle at US$90.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for October delivery decreased 34 cents, or 0.35 per cent, to close at US$96.31 on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

The European Union on Monday put forward a final text of the draft decision on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal while awaiting political decisions from participants of the Vienna talks.

Some traders talked about the Iran nuclear talks and held out hopes for a deal, said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst with The PRICE Futures Group.

Iran could lift its oil exports by 1 million to 1.5 million barrels per day in six months and a revival of the 2015 nuclear accord will likely see oil prices fall sharply given low expectation of the deal in the market, according to Vivek Dhar, analyst with Commonwealth Bank.

Total US commercial crude stocks likely climbed by 600,000 barrels last week, while US gasoline stocks and distillate stocks dropped 1.2 million barrels and 900,000 barrels in the same period, respectively, according to the latest survey of analysts by S&P Global Commodity Insights.

--BERNAMA