Brent crude plunged nearly 7 percent to its biggest one-day drop in more than two years

International crude futures prices closed tumbling on Wednesday, with Brent futures posting their biggest one-day drop in more than two years, as concerns about falling demand and the end of disruptions to Libyan crude production despite data showing the biggest weekly decline in U.
S
.
crude inventories last week in nearly two years.

West Texas Light (WTI) futures for August delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $3.
73, or 5%, to settle at $70.
38 a barrel, the lowest close since June 25
.
This means that WTI futures recorded their biggest one-day decline in percentage terms since June 7, 2017, and the largest one-day decline in price since September 1, 2015, based on the main contract
, according to data provided by The Wall Street Journal Market Data Group.

Meanwhile, North Sea Brent crude futures for September delivery on ICE Eurofutures in London also fell $5.
46, or 6.
9%, to settle at $73.
40 a barrel, the lowest close since June 21
.
At the same time, it also means that Brent crude oil futures, the international price benchmark, recorded their biggest one-day decline since February 9, 2016, in percentage terms; In price terms, it recorded the biggest one-day decline since November 28, 2013
.

"Market participants are taking
profits following reports of the resumption of crude oil production in Libya.
" Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group, said
.
In addition, he said, the market is still speculating that US President Donald Trump "will hammer Russia to force it to increase crude oil production" in order to push crude oil prices down
.

At the same time, despite data showing a sharp decline in U.
S.
crude inventories last week, it still failed to support
oil prices.
The U.
S
.
Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported earlier Wednesday that U.
S.
crude inventories plunged by 12.
6 million barrels in the week ended July 6, the biggest weekly decline since September 2016.
By comparison, analysts had expected an average of 4.
8 million barrels of crude inventories to fall for the week, while the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a 6.
8 million barrel
drop in inventories for the week, according to a S&P Global Platts survey.