Oil halted its advance after rising to a six-month high as investors weighed record Saudi production against signs the US supply glut is easing.
Futures fell as much as 0.6 percent in New York following a 5.7 percent rally the past two days, the most in three weeks. Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s biggest member, pumped 10.33 million barrels a day of crude in May, its data showed Wednesday.
US output accelerated even as stockpiles declined for a sixth week, the Energy Information Administration reported.
Oil’s recovery from a six-year low has slowed as a 40 percent price surge since March bolstered speculation that global production will expand and fuel a surplus.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries last week decided to maintain its quota as it sought to defend market share against higher-cost producers.
“The story from the Saudis is the same, they see increased demand,” Jonathan Barratt, the chief investment officer at Ayers Alliance Securities in Sydney, said by phone.
“Their rhetoric is that they have to increase and they’re showing that through their actions.”
West Texas Intermediate for July delivery dropped as much as 38 cents to $61.05 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $61.22 at 2:32 p.m. Singapore time.
The contract climbed $1.29 to $61.43 on Wednesday. Prices are up 15 percent this year.
Brent for July settlement slid as much as 30 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $65.40 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. It added 82 cents to $65.70 on Wednesday.
The European benchmark crude traded at a premium of $4.35 to WTI.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter, boosted output by 25,000 barrels a day from April, according to data it communicated to OPEC.
The 12-member group, which supplies 40 percent of the world’s oil, produced 30.975 million a day in May, its monthly market report showed.
Supply from nations outside OPEC will gain by 680,000 barrels a day this year, “one-third of the growth witnessed in 2014,” OPEC’s Vienna-based secretariat said in the report.
In the US, oil production rose by 24,000 barrels a day to 9.61 million a day through June 5, the EIA reported.
That’s the highest level in weekly data compiled by the Energy Department’s statistical arm since January 1983.
Crude inventories shrank by 6.81 million barrels to 470.6 million, the report showed. That’s still more than 90 million barrels above the five-year average for this time of the year. Stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI contracts, decreased by 1 million barrels to 58 million.
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