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Oil futures finished sharply lower Wednesday, with the U.S. benchmark registering its sharpest daily slump in about 13 months.
August West Texas Intermediate crude
CLQ8, -4.76%
the US benchmark, fell $ 3.73, or 5%, to $ 70.38 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange-its lowest price since June 25. The drop marked the worst-rate decline September 1 of 2015, according to the WSJ Market Data Group.
September Brent crude
LCOU8, -6.11%
meanwhile, dropped $ 5.46, or 6.9%, to $ 73.40 a barrel on London's ICE Futures exchange, marking its lowest settlement since June 21. That also represented the international benchmark's sharpest percentage in a single session since a Feb. 9 of 2016 and the steepest decline on a point basis since Nov. 28, 2013.
Read: The 7 reasons behind US oil's sharpest daily point drop in almost 3 years
"Market players are "Possible waivers for US sanctions on Iranian oil and renewed trade war fears," said Phil Flynn, senior market badyst at Price Futures Group.
There is also speculation that US President Donald Trump "will hammer Russia on raising oil production" in an effort to push prices, "he said.
The losses come even as the Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday that domestic crude supplies plunged by 12.6 million barrels for the week ended July 6.
"The biggest draw since September 2016 should be a wake up call for the US," said Flynn. "We are in "The EIA reported a climb in crude supplies last week, but that followed three-consecutive weeks of hefty declines.
The size of the supply was more than doubled 4.8 million-barrel reported by badysts surveyed by S & P Global Platts and the American Petroleum Institute on 6.8 million barrels.
James Williams, energy economist at WTRG Economics, pointed out that U.S. imports dropped by 1.6 million barrels a day, "which accounts for 11.4 million barrels of the drop in stocks" last week. He said that it was part of the import decline at the Syncrude Canada facility.
Gasoline stockpiles fell by 700,000 barrels for the week, but distillate stockpiles jumped 4.1 million barrels higher for the week, according to the EIA. The S & P Global Platts has a 1.7 million barrels for distillate stocks.
On Nymex, August gasoline
RBQ8, -4.13%
fell 4.6%, gold 9.89 cents, to $ 2.0614 a gallon, marking its sharpest session decline since Sept. 1, 2017. August heating oil
HOQ8, -4.87%
shed 12.1 cents, or 5.5% gold, to $ 2.1008 a gallon. The most severe one-day drop for heating oil on July 13, 2016.
Meanwhile, Libya's state-run National Oil Corp. lifted force majeure on eastern oil ports on the front of the armies,
"Resumption of exports from EIA data," said Williams . "
Bjornar Tonhaugen, vice president for oil markets at Rystad Energy AS, estimated that around 700,000 barrels of oil would eventually be returned to the global market. Libya.
Meanwhile, trade tensions between the US and China have also been noticed. The price of the US $ 26 billion worth of Chinese exports to the United States. the US, "said Olivier Jakob, head of energy consultancy Petromatrix.
China was the second-largest importer of US crude in the first quarter of the year, according to the EIA published data. As yet, China has not imposed tariffs on US crude
In a monthly report released Wednesday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said oil production from its 15 members, which now includes the Republic of Congo, averaged 32.33 million barrels a day in June, 175,000 barrels a day from a month earlier, OPEC said, citing secondary sources.
Rounding out energy action, August natural gas
NGQ18, + 1.36%
settled at $ 2.829 per million British thermal units, up 4.1 cents, or 1.5%, ahead of Thursday's EIA update on U.S. supplies of the fuel.
-Mark DeCambre contributed to this article
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