Oil Prices Fall Amid Surprise Crude Inventory Build

Oil prices fell on Wednesday after an unexpected increase in US crude inventories. This came despite concerns about supply risks following Saudi Arabia's suspension of oil loadings at its Yanbu port.

The suspension was due to an attack by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on the East-West pipeline, which had been used to reroute around 4% of global supply to the Red Sea port.

US West Texas Intermediate futures fell 97 cents, or 0.92%, to $104.86 a barrel, while Brent crude futures dropped 93 cents, or 0.86%, to $107.82 a barrel.

The API data showed that US crude oil inventories rose by 7.1 million barrels in the week ended September 11, exceeding analysts' expectations for a draw of about 1.6 million barrels.