Oil prices ease on surprise build in US crude stockpiles, OPEC+ to consider output hike

Oil prices eased about 1% to a two-week low on Thursday on a surprise build in U.S. crude inventories last week and expectations that OPEC+ producers will increase output targets at a meeting this weekend.

Brent crude futures fell 67 cents, or 1.0%, to $66.93 a barrel at 12:05 p.m. EDT (1603 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 59 cents, or 0.9%, to $63.38.

That put Brent on track for its lowest close since August 20.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said energy firms added 2.4 million barrels of crude into storage during the week ended August 29. ,

That was a surprise build in crude stocks compared with the 2.0-million-barrel withdrawal analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and was higher than the 0.6-million-barrel increase that market sources said the America$n Petroleum Institute trade group cited in its figures on Wednesday.