By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com -- U.S. crude stockpiles rose for a ninth straight week last week and nearly triple the forecast number, government data showed.
U.S. crude inventories rose by 7.648 million barrels during the week ended Feb. 17, the Energy Information Administration, or EIA, said in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report. That extended the prior week's outsized build of 16.283M barrels.
U.S. commercial crude inventories have risen by around 60M barrels so far this year.
The climb came amid seasonal maintenance and other disruptions at U.S. refineries that foresaw less processing of crude.
Note: This is a breaking story that will be updated.