By Aaron Sheldrick

TOKYO, Reuters – On Wednesday oil prices dropped for the second consecutive day. Brent reached its lowest level in over two weeks following a sudden jump in crude inventories in the United States.

After dropping by 2.1%, the price per barrel fell $1.36 to $83.22 at 0130 GMT. It was a 2-week low.

U.S. oil prices fell 1.6% or $1.28 to $81.38/barrel, which is a drop of 2.4% in one week.

The U.S. Energy Department reported that crude stocks increased by 4.3million barrels last week. This is more than twice the forecasted gain of 1.9 million barrels.

Citi Research commodities analysts noted that “hefty” stock increases were due “to a large jump net imports of, and still slow refinery processing,” in a statement.

Despite rising gasoline prices, U.S. motorists struggle to keep up with the declining stockpile, gasoil stocks dropped by 2,000,000 barrels, to their lowest level in almost four years. [EIA/S]

The WTI delivery hub at Cushing in Oklahoma is experiencing the highest crude storage levels in the last three years. Prices for futures contracts with longer terms indicate that supplies will remain low for many months.