Oil prices are falling due to the increase in US crude oil inventories

Crude oil futures fell on Wednesday, while US crude inventories rose.

The West Texas Intermediate contract for May delivery fell 11 cents, or 0.13%, to $81.51 a barrel on Wednesday.

The Brent contract for May delivery lost 22 cents, or 0.26%, to $86.03 a barrel.

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U.S. commercial crude inventories, excluding strategic oil reserves, increased by 3.2 million barrels in the week ended March 22, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Gasoline inventories rose by 1.3 million barrels, while domestic crude oil production was unchanged at 13.1 million barrels per day.

WTI is up 13.7% over the past year, while Brent is up 11.6%.

With CARD