Oil drops as data signal US crude stockpiles rising

Oil fell after industry data showed US crude stockpiles rose, keeping inventories at the highest seasonal level in at least 30 years as peak summer demand nears its end. Futures slid as much as 2.2 per cent in New York. Supplies rose by 4.46 million barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute was said to report Tuesday. Government data on Wednesday are forecast to show stockpiles fell last week. Iran’s oil ministry said the country hasn’t yet decided whether to join informal Opec talks next month in Algiers following a Reuters report that the nation had confirmed its attendance at the gathering. “We’ve got a huge oversupply of crude inventories, we’ve got an oversupply of petroleum products,” Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Citigroup Inc in New York said on Bloomberg Television.