Oil prices slid more than 1 percent on Wednesday, paring the previous day's gains, as a jump in U.S. crude inventories and surging COVID-19 cases raised fears of an oversupply of oil and weak fuel demand.
U.S. crude oil and gasoline stocks rose last week, data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute showed, with crude inventories rising by 4.6 million barrels to about 495.2 million barrels, against analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a build of 1.2 million barrels. Energy firms and ports along the U.S. Gulf Coast prepared on Tuesday for another test as Zeta, the 11th hurricane of the season, entered the Gulf of Mexico.
Infections are surging again in the United States, with nearly half a million people having contracted the coronavirus in the last seven days. European governments, meanwhile, prepared to introduce new restrictions to keep cases under control.