Oil heads for third weekly loss after new signs of inventory building

The Fed Reserve rate hike this week also kept prices under pressure amid a global glut of oil

Crude futures fell in Asian trading on Friday as fresh signs of inventory building and the Federal Reserves rate hike this week kept prices under pressure amid a global glut of oil that shows no sign of abating.

US crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were down 18 cents at $34.77 a barrel by 0104 GMT. The contract fell 1.6% to $34.95 a barrel on Thursday.

Brent fell by 19 cents to $36.87 a barrel. It fell 33 cents to $37.06 a barrel on Thursday.

Both contracts are on track to post a third week of losses, with US crude down 2.4% and Brent off by 2.6%.

 

WTI is less than 60 cents away from the low reached during the global financial crisis of $32.40 in December 2008, while Brent is less than 70 cents off its nadir of $36.20 the same month.

Market intelligence company Genscape reported an inventory increase of 1.4 million barrels at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub for WTI futures, traders who saw the data said on Thursday.

That came a day after the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said crude stockpiles across the United States rose by 4.8 million barrels last week, compared with analysts expectations for a draw.