US light crude was down $1.40 at $98.19 per barrel in mid-day trading. Earlier in the day, prices had plunged by more than $2 per barrel.

In London, benchmark Brent crude fell $0.91 to $117.37 per barrel in late afternoon trading.

The US Energy Information Administration released data on Wednesday morning showing a surprise increase of 2.3 million barrels in crude inventories to 354 million barrels during the previous week.

Analysts