Global oil prices accelerated their decline on Wednesday evening following the release of U.S. crude and petroleum product inventory data, according to trading figures.

As of 19:16 Moscow time, the price of July futures for Brent crude oil had fallen by 2.93% to $83.8 per barrel, while June futures for WTI crude were down 3.17%, at $79.33. Earlier in the day, prices for both grades of oil had been down just over 1%. The market is responding to the weekly U.S. inventory data for the week ending April 26.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) increased by 7.3 million barrels to 460.9 million barrels during this period. However, analysts had anticipated a decrease in stocks by 2.3 million barrels. U.S. gasoline inventories rose by 0.3 million barrels (0.2%), to 227.1 million barrels, while distillate stocks decreased by 0.7 million barrels (-0.6%), to 115.9 million barrels.