Oil fell further in Asian trade Thursday as a surprise rise in US gasoline stocks weighed on sentiment, analysts said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for December delivery was down 19 cents to 77.27 dollars a barrel in afternoon trade.
Brent North Sea crude for December delivery eased six cents to 75.80 dollars a barrel.
The Department of Energy (DoE) in its weekly report Wednesday said petrol reserves rose by 1.7 million barrels in the week ending October 23.
Analysts had been expecting a drop of 1.2 million barrels and the surprise rise in stock was seen as a further sign of sluggish demand in the world's biggest energy consumer.
"US economic data again included some positives and negatives... In the context of commodity markets that have been looking at the prospects for international economic recovery, it was the negatives that were the surprise," analysts from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia said in a report.
The DoE said distillates stocks, which include diesel and heating oil, slumped 2.1 million barrels, which was heavier than analysts' consensus forecasts.
It said crude reserves climbed by 800,000 barrels, which undershot expectations of a 1.4-million-barrel gain.
Adding to recovery concerns were government data Wednesday showing a drop in US new home sales in September after five consecutive months of rises, a day after a surprise fall in a key consumer confidence index.
The US Commerce Department said new home sales dropped at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 402,000 or by 3.6 percent in September from a revised 417,000 in August, far below the market forecast of a 5.5 percent jump to 440,000 homes.
Investors were also awaiting the release of official gross domestic data for the US economy later Thursday.
Analysts are expecting the US economy to record a 3.2 percent expansion, which will be the first growth for the world's largest economy after a year of quarterly contractions.
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