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By Bloomberg

West Texas Intermediate retreated from a one-week high after government data showed crude stockpiles rose as output surged to a record high in the U.S., the world's biggest oil consumer. Brent slid in London.

Futures fell as much as 0.6 percent in New York. Crude stockpiles gained for a fourth week as production increased to 8.97 million barrels a day, the fastest rate since January 1983, according to the Energy Information Administration. Supply and demand will return to equilibrium and OPEC members aren't waging a price war, Secretary-General Abdalla El-Badri said yesterday.

"Expanding stockpiles are putting downward pressure on oil," Kang Yoo Jin, a commodities analyst at Woori Investment & Securities Co. in Seoul, said by phone today. "Oversupply concerns in the market are not easing because OPEC isn't making any comments so far on a possible production cut."

WTI for December delivery dropped as much as 45 cents to $81.75 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and was at $81.84 at 4:40 p.m. Seoul time. The contract climbed 78 cents to $82.20 yesterday, the highest close since Oct. 21. The volume of all futures traded was about 44 percent below the 100-day average. Prices have decreased 17 percent this year.

Brent for December settlement declined as much as 32 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $86.80 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract rose 1.3 percent yesterday. The European benchmark crude traded at a premium of $5.06 to WTI, compared with $4.92 yesterday.

Oil Supplies

Crude has collapsed into a bear market amid increasing global supplies as leading members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries resisted calls to cut production. Futures are down about 10 percent in October, set for the largest monthly loss since May 2012.

OPEC, which pumps about 40 percent of the world's oil, doesn't face a "critical situation" as a result of the price slump, according to El-Badri. Its collective output in 2015 will remain close to this year's level of about 30 million barrels a day, he said at the Oil & Money conference in London.

The 12-member group, scheduled to meet Nov. 27 in Vienna, hasn't demanded an emergency response, El-Badri said.

In the U.S., crude stockpiles gained by 2.06 million barrels to 379.7 million in the week ended Oct. 24, reported the EIA, the Energy Department's statistical arm. Supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, the nation's biggest oil-storage hub and the delivery point for WTI futures, increased by 776,000 barrels to 21.4 million. That's the highest level since June.
Gasoline inventories slid by 1.24 million barrels to 203.1 million, the lowest level since November 2012, the data showed. Distillate fuels, including heating oil and diesel, were down 5.3 million barrels at 120.4 million.