New York — Oil prices fell about 1% on Wednesday as a surprise increase in US crude stockpiles and growing oil cartel Opec production fed worries that global supplies could swell, while investors continued to worry that trade tensions could hit energy demand. Brent crude futures fell $1.13 to $73.08 a barrel, a 1.5% loss, by 2.58pm GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 67c to $68.09 a barrel, a 1% loss. US crude inventories rose 3.8-million barrels in the week to July 27 as imports jumped, the US government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) said. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a decrease of 2.8-million barrels. Still, oil futures pared losses after the data was released, which also showed growing US demand. "Demand for crude oil from refiners is very high, and petrol demand remains sky-high as well," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital Management in New York. "US oil production growth appears to have stalled out and actually declined a fai...

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