Riyadh: The world's largest consumer of oil, the US, unexpectedly added to its crude and fuel inventories on Wednesday, and a deteriorating economy added to demand concerns.

At 09.15 a.m. Saudi Arabian time, US West Texas Intermediate crude futures dropped by 68 cents, or 0.91 percent, to $74.44 per barrel, while Brent crude futures dropped by 66 cents, or 0.82 percent, to $79.44 per barrel. During trading on Monday and Tuesday, both contracts increased, recovering from a severe selloff that occurred in the first week of 2023.

According to two sources familiar with data from the energy ministry, Russia's oil production increased by 0.1 percent between January 1 and January 9 to reach about 10.9 million barrels per day, up from December 2022, according to the daily Vedomosti on Wednesday.

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Russian oil production increased by 2% in 2022 to 535 million tonnes, or 10.7 million bpd.

According to shipping information seen by Reuters on Tuesday, Chevron Corp.'s first shipment of Venezuelan crude under a US licence it received in November has left from a ship-to-ship transfer hub close to Aruba for its Pascagoula, Mississippi refinery.

The US Treasury Department granted Chevron permission last year to increase oil production and expand operations in Venezuela as part of Washington's initiatives to promote political dialogue leading up to a presidential election in the South American nation.

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Chevron received the first shipment of crude oil this month from the state-run oil company PDVSA, which was loaded last week at the Jose terminal in Venezuela.

Refinitiv Eikon tanker monitoring data revealed this week that Chevron's tanker Caribbean Voyager transferred the 500,000 barrels of Hamaca heavy crude it had loaded in Venezuela to the Malta-flagged vessel Sealeo at a ship-to-ship hub close to the Caribbean island of Aruba.

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According to the Eikon data, the Sealeo is planned to arrive at Chevron's Pascagoula refinery on January 15.