Copyright 2015 Bloomberg.

Ben Sharples

(Bloomberg) — Oil fell for the first time in four days before U.S. government data forecast to show crude inventories increased further last week from a record level.

Futures dropped as much as 0.9 percent in New York. Stockpiles probably gained by 3 million barrels through Feb. 13, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts before an Energy Information Administration report on Thursday. Supplies climbed the prior five weeks to 417.9 million, the most in records dating back to August 1982. U.S. oil workers are threatening to expand a nationwide strike to a California port. Rising U.S. supplies are contributing to a global glut that drove prices almost 50 percent lower in 2014. Record growth in the nation’s shale production will slow in the coming years as the pace at which wells are exhausted accelerates, helping to normalize the market, BP Plc predicted.“The EIA number is likely to be one that influences sentiment,” Ric Spooner, a chief strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney, said by phone. “There are increasing signs that the oil price is starting to find a base.”West Texas Intermediate for March delivery declined as much as 49 cents to $53.04 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $53.21 at 12 p.m. Sydney time. The contract closed at $53.53 on Tuesday, up 75 cents from Friday to the highest settlement since Dec. 30. The volume of all futures traded was 68 percent below the 100-day average.
Crude Supplies
Brent for April settlement was 27 cents lower at $62.26 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. It added $1.13 to $62.53 on Tuesday. The European benchmark crude traded at a premium of $8.21 to WTI for the same month. U.S. crude stockpiles have surged to about 18 percent above the five-year average level for this time of year, according to EIA data. Production climbed 9.23 million barrels a day through Feb. 6, the most in weekly data compiled by the Energy Department’s statistical arm since January 1983. United Steelworkers members who help run oil terminals at the Port of Long Beach that supply refineries in the Los Angeles area are threatening to join an oil workers’ strike as they negotiate their own labor contract with Tesoro Logistics LP, said Dave Campbell, the secretary-treasurer of the union local. Since Feb. 1, the union has walked out of nine plants that account for 13 percent of the country’s fuel capacity.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Yee Kai Pin at kyee13@bloomberg.net Aaron Clark