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By Bloomberg

Oil fell for a second day, trimming a weekly advance as investors weighed signs of a slowdown in U.S. drilling against data showing OPEC’s biggest members are pumping crude at a record pace.

Futures fell as much as 1.5 percent in New York. Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates each produced at a record in May, the International Energy Agency said Thursday. While the U.S. Energy Information Administration said production from prolific shale formations will fall next month to the lowest since January, the nation’s output expanded again last week and stockpiles remained more than 90 million barrels above the five-year average for the time of the year.

Oil’s recovery from a six-year low has faltered amid speculation that global production will expand as prices rebound, prolonging a surplus. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries last week decided to maintain its output target as it sought to defend market share against higher-cost producers including U.S. shale.

“With the strategy from OPEC to keep pumping oil at a high level to preserve market share, there is a limit to how high prices can rise in the short term,” Jens Pedersen, a Copenhagen-based commodities analyst at Danske Bank A/S, said by e-mail. “That is keeping oil prices range-bound.”

West Texas Intermediate for July delivery declined as much as 93 cents to $59.84 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $60.04 at 11:04 a.m. London time. It lost 66 cents to $60.77 on Thursday. Prices are up 1.6 percent this week and 13 percent in 2015.

OPEC Supply

Brent for July settlement slid as much as 94 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $64.17 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The more-active August contract was down 35 cents at $65.44. The European benchmark crude traded at a premium of $4.56 to WTI, compared with $4.18 at the end of last week.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter, boosted output to 10.25 million barrels a day last month, the highest level since the IEA began tracking the kingdom’s supply in 1984. OPEC’s own data go back further and show Saudi Arabia pumped the most since August 1981.

Production from OPEC’s 12 members rose by 50,000 barrels a day to 31.33 million, the highest since August 2012, according to the the IEA, an adviser to developed economies on energy policy. Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the U.A.E. account for at least 18 percent of global oil output.

OPEC maintained its quota at 30 million barrels a day at a June 5 meeting in Vienna. The group has pumped above that target for the past 12 months, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

In the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer, crude inventories decreased for a sixth week through June 5 to 470.6 million barrels, the EIA said Wednesday. Production climbed to 9.61 million a day, the fastest pace in data compiled by the Energy Department’s statistical arm since January 1983.

Sixteen of 26 analysts and traders, or 62 percent, were bearish on WTI, according to a Bloomberg survey through Thursday. Six respondents were bullish while four were neutral.