$Oil lagging on the tail end, WTI knocking back into $52.00

• Oil prices getting challenged by rising US supplies once again.
• Demand for crude energy is struggling to keep pace with US production levels.

Oil prices have gone cautious for Thursday, with WTI ticking down towards 51.80 on rising US stock supplies. Although demand for crude oil continues to rise, energy traders are concerned that the pace of demand growth may not be enough after US gas reserves grew by more than was expected.

US crude oil production also ticked into a new all-time record, hitting 11.9 million barrels per day, with barrel exports also reaching record highs of 3 million barrels per day, and gasoline stockpiles added a surging 7.5 million barrels last week, far above the expected 2.8 million barrel increase, bringing the total gasoline backlog up to 255.6 million barrels.

WTI Technical Levels