Oil prices were little changed in early trading on Wednesday after industry data showed an unexpected build in U.S. crude and gasoline inventories, offsetting concerns about tightening supply ahead of output cuts by OPEC producers.
Brent crude fell 5 cents at $85.57 a barrel by 0029 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate fell 6 cents to $81.48 a barrel. At the same time, gasoline inventories rose by about 450,000 barrels, according to the API report, while analysts had expected a 1.6 million-barrel drawdown.Prices had risen about 2 per cent on Tuesday on hopes that the Federal Reserve might slow its policy tightening after U.S. consumer prices data releases on Wednesday.