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LONDON. — Oil slipped to $49 a barrel yesterday as the dollar strengthened, while an industry report showing a larger than expected rise in US crude inventories also pressured prices.

Crude futures settled up more than 2 percent on Tuesday, when the dollar index posted its biggest one-day fall since early October.

A weak US unit makes dollar-priced commodities cheaper for buyers holding other currencies.

Brent crude has fallen almost 60 percent since June, but since hitting a near six-year low of $45,19 two weeks ago, it has stabilised in a narrow range just below $50 a barrel.

“The key driver for oil prices in the last few days has been currency fluctuations . . . we had seen some weakness in the US dollar which helped support prices overnight,” Ric Spooner, chief analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney, said.

“Oil eased a little bit in the Asian time zone, possibly reflecting the fact that the dollar is a little bit stronger.”

Brent hit a low of $48,79 yesterday and was down 45c at $49,15 by 9.20am GMT. US crude was at $45,50 a barrel, down 73c, after hitting an intraday low of $45,33.

The dollar was up 0,2 percent against a basket of currencies. Investors are now looking to official US inventory data due later yesterday for trading cues.

The American Petroleum Institute said late on Tuesday that US crude inventories surged by 12,7 million barrels last week, triple the volume expected.

“The overall expectation is that global supply is outstripping demand at the moment and so unless we see some really substantial changes to inventory numbers, oil prices are probably not going to move too much,” Mr Spooner said.

Growing global supplies, led by the US shale boom, have dragged down oil prices from an average of about $110 a barrel between 2011 and 2013, with the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) declining to cut output as it battles to retain market share.

That has led many forecasters to slash their projections for oil. Barclays and Credit Suisse lowered their estimates for Brent in 2015 to $44 and $58 a barrel, respectively.

“We assume that Opec will maintain its position, non-Opec supply growth will stay firmly in positive territory, and oil consumption will be slow to respond to lower prices,” Barclays analysts said in a note. — Reuters.