Crude oil prices settled lower Wednesday after the US Energy Department reported a rise in oil stockpiles while warmer weather forecast further pressured on the prices.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil for February delivery fell 1.52 dollars to settle at 44.24 dollars a barrel. Meanwhile, the February Brent crude-oil futures contract declined 1.73 dollars to end at 40.64 dollars per barrel at London's International Petroleum Exchange.

On Wednesday, the US Energy Department reported that crude oil inventories rose 2.1 million barrels to 295.9 million last week, the highest since July. Crude supply had increased for 12 of the last 13 weeks and the imports of crude oil had averaged more than 10 million barrels a day each week since the beginning of October.The same report showed that stockpiles of distillate fuels, which included heating oil and diesel, increased 600,000 barrels to 119.9 million last week.

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service said that temperatures in the Northeast would rise above normal through the end of the year. Warmer-than-normal weather in the eastern US might slow demand for heating oil.

New York crude oil futures had fallen 21 percent from a record of 55.67 dollars a barrel on October 25. Oil prices had risen 36 percent this year.

Source: Xinhua