09:00 AM EDT, 03/27/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Oil prices fell early on Wednesday after a report said US oil inventories surged last week.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil for May delivery was last seen down US$0.55 to US$81.07 per barrel, while May Brent crude, the global benchmark, was down US$0.66 to US$85.59.

In its weekly survey, the American Petroleum Institute reported US oil inventories rose by 9.34-million barrels last week, following three weeks of declining stocks, while gasoline stocks also fell. The Energy Information Administration will release official data later on Wednesday morning.

"Current headwinds apart from dollar strength and the current overhang of recently established long positions were last night's crude and fuel stock report from the American Petroleum Institute which showed a bumper 9.3 million barrel increase in crude stocks ... While a build in crude and a drop in gasoline stocks are in line with the seasonal behaviour, the strength of the changes may still impact prices," Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, noted.

OPEC+ will meet next week with the group expected to make no changes to its 2.2-million barrels per day of voluntary production cuts until a ministerial meeting scheduled for June, Reuters reported, even as the group overproduced its quotas by 190,000 barrels per day in February, according to survey by the news agency.