Oil prices extend losses with fresh 3% decline

Oil prices extended their losses yesterday, falling nearly 3%, after a smaller-than-expected US inventory drawdown and jitters ahead of the vote on whether Britain should stay in the EU.

Crude futures rose early in the day, before the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a stockpile decline of 917,000 barrels for last week.

While it was the fifth consecutive weekly draw for crude, the number posted by the EIA was smaller than a 1.7m-barrel drawdown forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll.