Crude oil prices fell for a second day Wednesday after the US government inventory report showed an increase in oil and fuel supplies, reports Xinhua.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude oil futures for August delivery dropped 94 cents to end at $57.26 a barrel. Oil prices declined 6.1 percent since touching a record $60.95 a barrel two days ago.

Meanwhile, on London's International Petroleum Exchange, the August Brent crude-oil futures contract fell 81 cents to finish at $56.37 per barrel.

On Wednesday, the US department of energy said the nation's stocks of crude oil rose 1.1 million barrels in the week ended June 24, gasoline inventories increased 301,000 barrels, and supplies of distillates, a category that included heating oil and diesel, climbed 1.64 million barrels.

In addition, US crude oil imports rose to 10.97 million barrels a day, up 7.8 percent from a week earlier. The record was 11.32 million barrels a day in July 2004.

"If the uptrend is over, then the low $50 range could be a target area," said Tom Bentz, an oil broker at BNP Paribas Commodity Futures Inc. here.