After advancing for the past few days, oil futures retreated on Thursday despite a larger-than-expected drawdown of crude supplies, according to a report by Bloomberg MarketWatch.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, November West Texas Intermediate crude fell 70 cents, or 1.4%, to settle at $50.60 a barrel.
December Brent crude, the global benchmark, dropped by 69 cents, or 1.2%, to end trading at $56.25 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange.
Earlier on Thursday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration revealed that domestic crude supplies fell by 2.8 million barrels for the week ending October 6. This figure was significantly above the forecast for a decline of 400,000 barrels by analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts. Analysts in a Wall Street Journal survey had projected a 1.7 million-barrel decline. In contrast, the American Petroleum Institute reported an increase of 3.1 million barrels late Wednesday.
The EIA also reported a decline in domestic crude production by 81,000 barrels a day to 9.48 million barrels.
Meanwhile, natural gas futures gained more ground after the EIA reported a weekly increase in domestic supplies. The report revealed that U.S. natural gas supplies rose by 87 billion cubic feet for the week ending October 6. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts forecast a climb of 86 billion.
Back on the New York Mercantile Exchange, November natural gas climbed 10 cents, or 3.4%, to settle at $2.989 per million British thermal units.