Oil futures traded lower yesterday on a larger than expected build in US crude inventories and on concerns that a producer meeting set for Sunday in Doha to discuss freezing output will do little to trim oversupply.

Brent crude was down 62 cents at $44.07 per barrel at 14:39 GMT, while US crude declined by 63 cents to $41.54.

US crude inventories rose 6.6 million barrels last week to 536.53 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said yesterday, compared with analyst expectations of a 1.9 million barrel rise.

But a larger than expected draw in gasoline inventories softened the blow of soaring crude stocks. Gasoline fell by 4.2 million barrels to 239.76 million, compared with an analyst forecast of a 1.4 million barrel draw.

“Even with the large build in oil stocks, everyone’s focus is shifting to that summer driving season and with the gasoline drawdown of 4.24 million barrels, I would expect crude oil to continue to rally,” senior market strategist at Chicago-based RJO Futures said yesterday.

Prices were already under pressure from comments by Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi in the al-Hayat newspaper in which he confirmed his country’s position that an outright production cut was out of the question.

Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh does not plan to attend the Doha meeting but Iran will be sending a representative, an Iranian journalist from the Seda weekly wrote on his Twitter account yesterday.

Iran has said it does not plan to participate in the freeze agreement as it seeks to boost its production in the post-sanctions era.

Morgan Stanley analysts said the market may still be underestimating the potential near-term headline upside risk of the Sunday meeting. Opec pumped 32.25 million bpd in March, the group said citing secondary sources, up about 15,000 bpd from February.