U.S. crude oil inventories rose for the third straight week, gasoline inventories rose for the first time in seven weeks, and crude oil production hit a record high.

WTI futures for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 35 cents to $56.77 a barrel, or 0.6%. The price of Brent crude oil for January delivery on ice Europe futures exchange in London also fell 9 cents to close at US $62.28 per barrel, or 0.1%.

U.S. crude oil inventories rose 2.2 million barrels for the week ending November 8, according to a report released earlier Thursday by the U.S. energy information agency, delayed by Monday's veterans day. By contrast, analysts had previously expected an average of 1 million barrels of crude oil inventories to rise in the week, according to S & P global Platts, while the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a decline of 541000 barrels on Wednesday.