Proactive Investors - BP PLC (LON:BP) and Shell PLC (LON:SHEL) shares faced losses on Wednesday as oil prices moved lower for a second consecutive day.
Brent crude shed 1.3% between Tuesday and Wednesday to sit at US$85.70 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate slipped 1.2% to US$81.13.
This came as data was expected to show a surge in US crude oil inventories on Wednesday, coinciding with signals that OPEC+ producers would not opt to cut output further in a meeting next week.
As per sources, American Petroleum Institute figures are set to show US crude stockpiles rose by 9.3 million barrels over the course of last week when released later on Wednesday.
Alongside this, OPEC+ nations, which account for almost 40% of global supply, were tipped to be unlikely to commit to further cuts until the summer, following a 2.2 million barrel per day reduction agreed earlier this month.
Despite reports that member nations oversupplied 190,000 barrels per day in February, the group of oil-producing nations are not set to cut output any further until June, as per Reuters-cited sources.
BP slipped 1.5% to 492.30p on the news, while Shell (LON:RDSa) fell 1.3% to 2,612.50p.