Oil prices fall on surprise jump in US crude stocks

Oil prices fell Wednesday as US official data showed that the country's crude stockpiles rose stronger than expected last week.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in April fell 34 cents to $50.18 a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for April slipped 63 cents to stand at $60.39 a barrel in late London deals.

The US Department of Energy said commercial crude inventories jumped by 10.3 million barrels last week. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News had estimated a gain of 3.8 million.

"The actual build was significantly higher than expected," said Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst at Forex.com trading group

He said the data "suggests that oil companies are continuing to produce oil unabatedly, adding to an already-saturated market. Ironically, it seems that the significantly lower prices are forcing oil companies to produce more in order to achieve similar levels of revenue as before the crash.

"Should this trend continue then prices will surely have to fall further as demand for crude is still relatively weak," Razaqzada added.

The global oil market has lost about 50 percent of its value since June, weighed down by the global supply glut.

Tetsu Emori, commodity fund manager with Astmax Investments in Tokyo, earlier said that dealers were closely monitoring unrest in crude producer Libya.

Islamist militants seized control of at least two oil fields in central Libya on Tuesday, a spokesman for the country's oil industry security service told AFP.

Violence and a slowdown at export terminals had already forced a shutdown for the last several weeks at the Al-Bahi and Al-Mabrouk fields, about 310 miles (500 kilometres) east of Tripoli.

An attack on the sites in February killed 11 people, and all staff were evacuated.

Libya has been awash with weapons since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi, and opposing militias have since been battling for control of its cities and oil wealth.

Fighting in the North African state, a member of the OPEC oil-producing cartel, has seen output reduced from a high of almost 1.5 million barrels a day to 150,000 a day, according to analysts.