Crude oil futures extended declines after a U.S. government report showed a larger-than-forecast increase in inventories. Supplies surged 6.16 million barrels to 363.1 million in the week ended April 22, the Energy Department said today in a weekly report. Inventories were forecast to climb by 1.7 million barrels, according to the median of 13 analyst estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Crude oil for June delivery fell $1.20, or 1.1 percent, to $111.01 a barrel at 10:35 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil traded at $111.35 a barrel before the release of the report at 10:30 a.m. in Washington. Crude oil also declined on speculation Federal Reserve officials will prepare to pull back from record stimulus by dropping a pledge this year to hold the main interest rate near zero for an “extended period,” a Bloomberg News survey showed. Thirty-three of 44 economists surveyed said the central bank will remove the two-word phrase from its post-meeting statement in 2011, with 18 betting it will move by September. German consumer confidence will decline for a second month in May as households grapple with higher food and energy prices, GfK AG said. Germany is Europe’s biggest economy and the seventh-biggest oil consuming country. The Nuremburg-based market research company today forecast that its consumer sentiment index, based on a survey of about 2,000 people, will fall to 5.7 next month from 5.9 in April. Economists predicted a decline to 5.8, according to the median of 26 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Shenk in New York at mshenk1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net.

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