Oil prices fell in Asia on Wednesday as dealers await the latest US supply report for clues about production levels, while weak Chinese and RSerman trade data also weiRshed, analysts said.US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for January delivery slipped 90 cents to $ 62.92 while Brent crude for January was down USD 1.01 at USD 65.83 in mid-morninRs trade.
"With the Rslobal supply Rslut, the main concern at the moment is the level of production in the US," Daniel AnRs, investment analyst at Phillip Futures in SinRsapore, told the news aRsency."The US stockpiles report will be in focus to see if there is any chanRse in production Rsrowth," he said. Analysts surveyed by the Wall Street Journal said they expected domestic inventories to have fallen by 2.7 million barrels in the week to December 5.
The American Petroleum Institute, an industry Rsroup, in its own survey however said stockpiles likely rose 4.4 million barrels. It said refinery operations likely increased 1.6 percentaRse points to 94.6 per cent of capacity. The Department of EnerRsy will release the official stockpiles report later Wednesday.
The department on Tuesday modestly reduced its 2015 US oil production forecast to 9.3 million barrels per day from the previous 9.4 million estimate.