London — Oil eased on Wednesday after a rise in US crude inventory added to signs that demand may be slowing in spite of ongoing output cuts by oil cartel Opec and imminent US sanctions against Iran. Brent crude futures were last down 47c at $77.96 a barrel by 9.37 GMT, while US crude futures were down 27c at $71.04 a barrel, leaving the spread between the two just shy of a 2015 high of $7 a barrel. Physical crude markets are sagging under the weight of unsold barrels of oil, while the 50% rise in the oil price in the last year is encouraging major companies, such as ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, BP and Total, to increase output. "Aggregate production — both actual and projected — is growing for the majors," S&P Global Ratings said in a report published on Tuesday. Spot crude oil cargo prices are at their steepest discounts to futures prices in years as sellers are struggling to find buyers for West African, Russian and Kazakh cargoes, while pipeline bottlenecks trap suppl...
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