Singapore — Oil prices resumed their downward trend on Wednesday as data showed a rise in US crude inventories and record supply in the rest of the world cast doubt on Opec’s ability to cut supply and tighten the market. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were trading at $49.32 a barrel at 12.52am GMT, down 24c, or 0.5% from their last close, after gaining 0.7% in the previous session. WTI has fallen for seven of the past eight sessions. Traders said that a report late on Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute (API) that US crude oil inventories rose by 897,000 barrels in the week to April 21 to 532.5-million barrels had weighed on WTI. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $51.88 a barrel, down 22c, or 0.4%, from their last close. Brent is about 8.5% below its April peak. Oil cartel Opec and a group other producers including Russia, but excluding the US have pledged to cut output by 1.8-million barrels a day during the first h...
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