TOKYO (Reuters – Oil prices declined on Wednesday following data showing that inventories rose faster than predicted and fuel inventories increased unexpectedly in the United States last week. This country is the biggest oil importer.

After closing on Tuesday at its highest level in seven years, the price of a barrel fell by 25 cents or 0.3% to $86.15

West Texas Intermediate (WTI), futures fell 26c, or 0.3%, at $84.39/barrel after rising 1.1% during the previous session.

Market sources said that crude oil inventories rose by 2.3 Million barrels over the week to Oct. 22. These figures were cited late Tuesday night by American Petroleum Institute. This was higher than what had been expected for a gain of 1.9 million barrels.

In contrast to the forecast that they would both drop, gasoline inventories increased by 500,000 barrels. Distillate stocks rose by 1,000,000 barrels.

According to analysts, Brent is on the rise over the past 8 weeks while WTI has been climbing for 10 consecutive weeks. Prices are beginning to look too high, they said.

Craig Erlam is a senior analyst with OANDA. “If there are no more bullish headlines (which could be considering yesterday’s events), we might see profit-taking in Brent or WTI, which would be good for the market,” he said.