Oil prices fell to a three-month low near $47 a barrel on Wednesday as a tide of crude shipments to the United States boosted inventories, already at their highest level in six years. U.S. crude dropped $1.72, or 3.3 percent, to $47.25 a barrel, falling as low at $47, the lowest price since mid-February. London's Brent crude was down $1.21 at $48.13 a barrel, Reuters reported. Prices are down around $11 from record highs hit in early April, following a bout of sustained selling from hedge funds as high OPEC production swelled U.S. crude stocks. Commercial inventories of oil in the United States, the world's biggest energy consumer, rose another 4.3 million barrels last week to 334 million barrels -- the 13th increase in the last 14 weeks, the U.S. government said. "There's lots and lots of crude. There's no way around it," said Kyle Cooper, an analyst at Citigroup Global Markets. "Even with a crude supply disruption, at 334 million barrels of crude, we will be fine." Crude stocks are at the highest level since July 1999, when prices were nearly $30 below current values. --More 2256 Local Time 1956 GMT
