Oil prices turned down after the U.S. Department of Energy unexpectedly reported an increase in oil inventories during the reporting week. Crude oil futures prices lost ground after the decision by the OPEC+ alliance to slightly increase oil production, Reuters reported.

Crude oil futures chart – what’s happening in the market?

At the time of writing, in September, WTI crude oil futures were trading down $2.52, or 2.7%, at $91.90 a barrel.

October Brent crude oil futures were down $2.50, or 2.5%, to $98.04 a barrel.

September gasoline futures on the NYMEX fell 3.2% to $2,959 a gallon, while September heating oil futures traded near the flat line, at $3,381 a gallon.

Crude oil futures chart shows September natural gas futures fell 1.1% to $7,623 per million Btu.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Wednesday a 4.5 million barrel increase in U.S. commercial crude oil inventories for the week of July 23-29, while gasoline inventories increased by 200,000 barrels. Distillate stocks were down 2.4 million barrels, the agency said in a report.

Analysts polled by S&P Global Commodity Insights had on average expected crude stocks to decline by 1.7 million barrels. They also projected that gasoline and distillate inventories would fall by 1.5 million barrels and 500,000 barrels, respectively.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a 2.2 million barrel increase in oil inventories and a 204,000-barrel decrease in gasoline inventories.

“Increased oil imports as well as reduced refinery utilization to its lowest level since May resulted in a strong increase in oil inventories during the reporting week. The increase in inventories outweighed the OPEC+ decision,” which had previously boosted oil prices, said Matt Smith, an analyst at Kpler.

Meanwhile, fluctuations in anticipated gasoline demand may have led to a reduction in oil refining and a slight increase in gasoline inventories in the reporting week, while distillate inventories fell again, the expert said.