OIL PRICE: ABOVE $77 ANEW

REUTERS -  Oil prices fell on Wednesday, weighed down by ample supplies despite ongoing output cuts by producer cartel OPEC and looming U.S. sanctions against major crude exporter Iran.

Brent crude futures were at $78.22 per barrel at 0644 GMT, down 21 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last close.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $71.03 a barrel, down 28 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their last settlement.

Despite the dips, both financial oil benchmarks remained close to their November 2014 highs of $79.47 and $71.92 a barrel respectively, reached the previous day.

But there are signs in physical crude markets that may give pause to financial investors.

There are also signs that oil production will rise, especially at majors like ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, BP and Total.

"Aggregate production - both actual and projected - is growing for the majors," S&P Global Ratings said in a report published on Tuesday.

Spot crude oil cargo prices are at their steepest discounts to futures prices in years as sellers are struggling to find buyers for West African, Russian and Kazakh cargoes, while pipeline bottlenecks trap supply in west Texas and Canada.

The bottleneck in North America likely contributed to a 4.9 million barrel rise in U.S. crude oil inventories, to 435.6 million barrels, that the private American Petroleum Institute reported on Tuesday.

"The API inventory data in the U.S. fits with ... a topping pattern – or at least a decent pause – for oil prices at the moment," said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at futures brokerage AxiTrader.

Official U.S. government fuel storage data is due for release by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) later on Wednesday.

"We expect the EIA report to display bearish results amidst higher rig counts and production levels in the U.S.," said Singapore-based brokerage Phillip Futures.

Despite Wednesday's dips and some indicators implying the financial oil has overshot physical oil, overall crude market conditions have tightened since 2017 when the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) started to withhold supplies to push up oil prices.

With renewed U.S. sanctions looming against OPEC-member Iran and oil demand strong, analysts said crude markets will likely remain tight for much of the year.

Stronger oil prices are also spilling into other markets.

"A rising oil price brings upside price risk to all commodities," Morgan Stanley said in a note to clients this week.

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Earlier: 

2018, May, 14, 11:40:00 OIL PRICE: ABOVE $76 REUTERS - Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $76.79 per barrel at 0648 GMT, down 33 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $70.44 a barrel, down 26 cents, or 0.3 percent.

2018, May, 14, 11:35:00 GLOBAL IRAN SANCTIONS PLATTS - Trump's plan to leave the Iran nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions could have major impacts for global oil, natural gas, metals and petrochemical markets.

2018, May, 14, 11:30:00 SAUDIS - RUSSIA COORDINATION FT - “Any action will be taken in co-ordination with other producers,” the person said on Wednesday, adding that Saudi Arabia was already in talks with Russia and other producers, including the UAE.

2018, May, 10, 13:30:00 OIL PRICE: ABOVE $77 REUTERS - Brent crude futures were up 29 cents at $77.50 a barrel by 0933 GMT, having gained 3.5 percent so far this week, the largest weekly increase since mid-April. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 42 cents at $71.56 a barrel.

2018, May, 10, 13:20:00 OIL PRICES 2018 - 19: $71 - $66 EIA - Brent crude oil spot prices averaged $72 per barrel (b) in April, an increase of $6/b from the March level and the first time monthly Brent crude oil prices have averaged more than $70/b since November 2014. EIA forecasts Brent spot prices will average $71/b in 2018 and $66/b in 2019, which are $7/b and $3/b higher, respectively, than in the April

2018, May, 10, 13:10:00 OIL MARKET STABILITY PLATTS - Saudi Arabia's energy minister Khalid al-Falih said Wednesday that the country would work closely with OPEC as well as non-OPEC producers to mitigate the impact of any shortages that might arise following the US' decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.

2018, May, 8, 11:00:00 OIL PRICE: ABOVE $75 YET REUTERS - U.S. crude futures last traded at $70.11 per barrel, down 0.9 percent from Monday’s settlement price. Global benchmark Brent crude futures stood at $75.64 per barrel, down 0.7 percent, having risen as high as $76.34 on Monday.