Crude oil prices fell sharply today after the Energy Information Administration reported a 9.3-million increase in crude oil inventories for the week to October 11.

The EIA said that at 434.9 million barrels crude oil inventories were 2 percent above the five-year average for the season.

Last week’s build extended a three-week series of inventory increases.

In gasoline, the EIA reported a decline of 2.6 million barrels for the week to October 11, compared with a drop of 1.2 million barrels a week earlier. Gasoline production stood at 10 million barrels daily last week, versus 10.1 million bpd a week earlier.

In distillate fuels, the EIA reported inventories had shed 3.8 million barrels, which compared with a decline of 3.9 million barrels a week earlier. Distillate fuel production averaged 4.7 million barrels daily last week, down from 4.8 million bpd a week earlier.

At the time of writing, Brent crude traded at $59.17 a barrel, with West Texas Intermediate changing hands at $53.23 a barrel. Both benchmarks were down from yesterday’s close, which marked the third straight day of losses. Related: Higher Oil Exports Insufficient To Cut Brimming Venezuelan Stocks

These came on the back of more bad news about the global economy. On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund revised downwards its forecast for global growth to 3 percent for this year. This would be the slowest rate of growth for the global economy since the crisis year of 2008.

“There is more concern about a slowing global economy, with weak import and export data out of China, which one might think would make China want to get done with the so-called phase one of this complex U.S.-China deal,” a senior analyst from Price Futures Group said in a note.

This concern has overshadowed both the U.S.-China trade deal and any supply concerns driven by geopolitical tensions in the Middle East as evidenced by the short-lived price spike that followed the strikes against an Iranian tanker off the Saudi coast last Friday.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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