Crude oil prices are trading lower in mid-US trading today, Wednesday, May 14, despite recovering a significant portion of the losses recorded at the beginning of the European session following OPEC’s monthly report. Inventory figures came in contrary to expectations, with Brent crude falling by about 0.80% to trade at $66.10 a barrel, while US crude (NYMEX) is trading at $63.12 a barrel, down about 0.86%.

The US Energy Information Administration report released moments ago showed a rise in inventories of 3.5 million barrels in the past week ending May 9, compared to expectations for a decrease of 1.8 million barrels. In detail, gasoline inventories decreased by about 1 million barrels, while distillate inventories, which include heating oil and diesel, decreased by about 3.2 million barrels. In its monthly report issued today, OPEC maintained its forecast for demand growth for this year and next at 1.3 million barrels, the same as its April forecast.

The organization expects oil demand in the OECD countries to grow by 100,000 barrels and outside OPEC+ countries by 1.2 million barrels. The organization also lowered its forecast for oil supply growth from the United States and producers outside the OPEC+ alliance by 800,000 barrels this year, compared to 900,000 barrels in the April forecast.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan’s oil production fell by 3% to 1.82 million barrels per day in April, continuing to exceed its OPEC+ quota of 1.473 million barrels per day.