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By Bloomberg

Oil traded below $50 a barrel before U.S. government data forecast to show crude stockpiles that are already at a record swelled further in the biggest consumer.

Futures were little changed in New York after falling for a fifth day Tuesday in the longest run of declines since August. Crude inventories probably rose by 4 million barrels last week, a Bloomberg News survey shows before an Energy Information Administration report Wednesday. President Barack Obama vetoed a Republican-backed bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline that would carry Canadian oil to the Gulf Coast.

Expanding U.S. stockpiles are exacerbating a global glut that drove prices almost 50 percent lower in 2014. Inventories have climbed about 20 percent above the five-year average level for this time of the year, according to the EIA. Supplies rose by 8.9 million barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute said Tuesday, reports on Twitter showed.

“That ongoing supply increase is a clear reason for the weakness,” Michael McCarthy, a chief strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney, said by phone. “We’re right in the middle of an established trading range, we need a break above $55 or below $45 for West Texas to really see a technical picture unfold.”

West Texas Intermediate for April delivery was at $49.17 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 11 cents at 1:38 p.m. Singapore time. The contract slid 17 cents to $49.28 on Tuesday. The volume of all futures traded was about 63 percent below the 100-day average. Prices have decreased 7.7 percent this year.

Crude Stockpiles

Brent for April settlement was 16 cents higher at $58.82 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract slid 24 cents to $58.66 on Tuesday. The European benchmark crude was at a premium of $9.62 to WTI.

U.S. crude inventories probably rose to 429.6 million last week, the Bloomberg survey shows. That would be the highest in records dating back to August 1982.

Stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI, climbed by 2.4 million barrels last week, said the API, reports on Twitter showed. The Washington-based group collects information on a voluntary basis from operators of refineries, bulk terminals and pipelines. The government requires that data be filed with the EIA. Supplies at the hub rose by 3.96 million barrels through Feb. 20, according to a Bloomberg storage model.

The proposed Keystone XL pipeline would have the capacity to carry 830,000 barrels a day of crude and connect Alberta’s oil sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast via Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. Obama rejected the bill because it interfered with a review being led by the State Department but he hasn’t decided on whether to approve a permit for the link, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday.

Refinery Strike

The United Steelworkers union plans to talk this week with Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which is bargaining on behalf of oil companies amid the biggest U.S. refinery strike in 35 years, USW International President Leo Gerard said Tuesday. A deal with the union, representing 30,000 oil workers in contract negotiations, would end a walkout at plants that account for almost 20 percent of the country’s refining capacity.

In China, a manufacturing gauge rebounded in February, suggesting stimulus efforts and a U.S. recovery are supporting factories in the world’s largest energy user. The preliminary Purchasing Managers’ Index from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics was at 50.1, exceeding the median estimate of 49.5 in a Bloomberg survey and up from January’s 49.7. Numbers above 50 indicate expansion.