SINGAPORE (Commodity Online) : Global oil prices extended losses in Asian trade Wednesday despite increasing demand from the US and China.
Light sweet crude for August delivery was seen trading at $75.69 a barrel at 11.30 a.m Singapore time while Brent crude was at $ 75.07 a barrel in London.
Analysts said the black gold suffered on renewed fears that the global economic recovery is losing traction amid a strong dollar.
The greenback remained stronger, further eroding oil purchasing power for emerging economies.
Tropical Storm Alex was upgraded to a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico late on Tuesday but was moving north of Mexican oil rigs and far southwest of U.S. fields, easing concerns about a supply disruption.
However, precautionary evacuations and closures interrupted 395,878 barrels per day, or 24.7 percent of U.S. oil output in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said.
U.S. crude inventories fell 3.4 million barrels in the week to June 25, industry group the American Petroleum Institute said on Tuesday.
Gasoline stocks fell 908,000 barrels, versus analysts' expectations of a 500,000-barrel draw, but distillates, including heating oil and diesel, rose 4 million barrels, above forecasts for a 800,000-barrel gain.
On Tuesday, New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, slid $2.31 to close at $75.94 a barrel.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for August settled at $75.44, down $2.15 from Monday's close.
Prices have declined almost 10 percent from the end of March, the first quarterly drop since the October-December period in 2008. Still, in early May U.S. crude hit a 19-month high above $87.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will publish more closely-watched government statistics on inventories on Wednesday.
