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1st LD Writethru: Oil prices decline amid rising inventories

Xinhua, December 31, 2015 Adjust font size:

Oil prices plunged Wednesday as U.S. crude stockpiles increased unexpectedly.

U.S. crude supplies of last week gained 2.6 million barrels to 487.4 million barrels, 102 million barrels more than one year before, said U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) in its weekly report on Wednesday.

U.S. crude production added 81,000 to 9.202 million barrels a day last week, according to EIA's report.

Thanks to the U.S. shale oil revolution, domestic oil production has almost doubled in the past six years.

Oil prices were dragged down recently by the global supply glut. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided Dec. 4 to keep crude production pumping at current level in the already oversupplied market.

The West Texas Intermediate for February delivery moved down 1.27 U.S. dollars to settle at 36.6 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for February delivery decreased 1.33 dollars to close at 36.46 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. Endit