Oil slips for third session before U.S. inventories EIA data | Reuters

Oil slips for third session before U.S. inventories EIA data | Reuters

Oil fell for a third straight session on Wednesday as investors took profits while looking ahead to U.S. inventories data due later in the day for pointers on where prices will head next.

Brent crude for May dropped 63 cents, or 0.9%, to $66.89 a barrel by 0721 GMT, after earlier hitting an intraday low of $66.50, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for April was at $63.47 a barrel, down 54 cents, or 0.8%.

Prices gained support last week from the OPEC+ decision to largely maintain production cuts in April. They then initially jumped on Monday, with Brent rising above $70 a barrel, after attacks by Yemeni Houthis on Saudi’s oil heartland, before settling back as the alarm subsided.

“It’s a realisation that there was no impact on supply from the attack,” Virendra Chauhan, a Singapore-based analyst at consultancy Energy Aspects said.