Oil drops

Tokyo: Oil prices dropped on Thursday after official data showed an unexpected rise in U.S. crude stockpiles and as U.S. output scaled record levels.

Brent crude futures had fallen 21 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $72.69 a barrel by 0615 GMT. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures declined 7 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $68.69. The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday reported that U.S. crude oil production reached 11 million barrels per day (bpd) for the first time.

The country has added nearly 1 million bpd in production since November, thanks to rapid increases in shale drilling.

More is likely to come to market before long, Rystad Energy said. "We are still bullish on U.S. shale, though we expect to see a temporary plateau in 2019 due to the bottlenecks of pipelines and, indeed, manpower and drivers," said Yosuke Uehara, vice-president at Rystad Energy in Japan.