Oil Prices is Down as U.S. crude stocks hit record for 7th week in a row

Oil futures fell amid the rising U.S. crude stockpiles kept supplies at the highest level in more than eight decades. It renewed worries of global oversupply

Brent crude futures fell as much as 1.5% in New York after closing little changed Wednesday, 45 cents to $38.81 a barrel as of 0518 GMT. It ended up 12 cents in the previous session after touching a session peak of $40.61. U.S. crude futures dropped 53 cents to $37.79 a barrel.

Inventories expanded for a 7th week by 2.3 million barrels to 534.8 million barrels, according to a report from the Energy Information Administration. Imports and production dropped. Ecuador and Venezuela will support a cut to output at a meeting between major exporters in Doha next month, Ecuador’s Oil Minister Carlos Pareja said in a post on the ministry’s Twitter account.

But the increase was less than analysts' expectations of a 3.3 million barrel build after crude imports fell 636,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 7.4 million bpd.

Refinery crude runs rose by 414,000 bpd and refinery utilization rates rose 2 percentage points to 90.4 percent of total capacity, the highest seasonal rate since 2005.