Oil prices ease ahead of U.S. inventory data

Oil prices edged down on Wednesday, pressured by global central bank efforts to tame inflation and ahead of expected builds in U.S. crude inventories as product demand weakens, Reuters.

Brent LCoc1 crude prices for September fell 37 cents, or 0.3%, to $106.98 a barrel by 0340 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 for August slipped 69 cents, or 0.7%, to $103.53 per barrel. The WTI contract will expire later on Wednesday.

The more active September WTI contract CLc2 was at $100.24 a barrel, down 50 cents.

Oil prices whipsawed in the previous session, caught in a tug-of-war between supply fears due to Western sanctions on Russia and pressures on indications from central bankers that they will raise interest rates to combat inflation.

Both contracts settled about 1% higher on Tuesday on tight supplies globally which have also kept the prompt Brent intermonth spreads in wide backwardation at about $4.40 a barrel LCOc1-LCOc2. Front-month prices are higher than those in future months in a backwardated market, indicating tight supplies.

On Friday, open interest in New York Mercantile Exchange futures CL-TOT fell to their lowest since September 2015 as investors cut risky assets like commodities, worried that the Federal Reserve will keep raising U.S. interest rates.

In the United States, crude stocks rose by about 1.9 million barrels for the week ended July 15, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday. That was close to the forecast for a rise of 1.4 million barrels in a Reuters poll.

Official weekly crude and fuel inventory data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is expected on Wednesday at 1530 GMT and traders are watching out for implied demand.