By Christopher Alessi 

LONDON--Oil prices fell Thursday morning on the back of rising U.S. petroleum stockpiles.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, was down 1.2% at $72.01 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures were trading down 1.1% at $68.00 a barrel.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said crude oil inventories increased by 5.8 million barrels last week, to reach 411.1 million barrels. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a decline in crude stockpiles week-on-week.

The EIA also reported that U.S. crude production rose to a 11 million barrels a day--a record high, according to Tamas Varga, an analyst at brokerage PVM Oil Associates Ltd.

However, the EIA said petroleum product stockpiles had fallen last week, which helped bolster prices in afternoon trading Wednesday.

"What is bullish in the report, apart from the unexpected draw in gasoline stocks, is the demand data. Total product demand was up 1.4 million barrels a day last week at 21.3 million barrels a day," Mr. Vargas noted.

Oil prices have, overall, come under pressure over the past week, with Brent coming down nearly $8 a barrel, amid concerns over burgeoning global supply.

"On the supply side, production in Libya has staged a partial comeback, a release from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve has become a growing possibility, and the possibility has emerged that the U.S. government introduces some waivers around the Iranian sanctions," analysts at Morgan Stanley wrote in a note.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia and some other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have been rapidly ramping up output after more than a year of holding back production with partner producers like Russia.

Among refined products Thursday, Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock--the benchmark gasoline contract--was down 1.1% at $1.99 a gallon. ICE gasoil, a Benchmark for diesel, was up 0.3% at $634.75 a metric ton.

Write to Christopher Alessi at christopher.alessi@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 19, 2018 07:33 ET (11:33 GMT)