Oil prices fell heavily from near record peaks on Wednesday after a sharp build in U.S. crude stocks spurred traders to take profits from a fierce rally. U.S. light crude futures dropped $1.59 a barrel to $53.58 a barrel, extending a slide from an all-time high of $55.67 on Monday. London Brent fell $1.36 to $50.20 after briefly touching a record peak at $51.94 a barrel. Prices slid after the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration said crude stocks rose 4 million barrels to 283.4 million barrels, narrowing a deficit against last year to 9 million barrels. Oil prices have surged 70 percent this year, driven by blistering demand growth that has pushed global production to its limit. Fears that refiners have not made enough heating oil to last the winter have added fuel to the rally this month. While the EIA showed heating oil stocks down 600,000 barrels to 48.9 million, some 15 percent below last year, analysts said that in the absence of a cold snap heating oil stocks should now start to grow as refineries return from seasonal maintenance. "We're still losing ground on distillates, but that should probably improve in the coming weeks with refinery runs going up," said Phil Flynn, analyst at Alaron trading in Chicago. --More 2234 Local Time 1934 GMT
