Oil prices fell on Wednesday as an unexpected build in US crude inventories weighed on markets, along with concerns that Chinese crude demand could falter as Beijing clamps down on alleged tax evasion in the oil industry. 
International Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were trading at $49.32 a barrel at 0614 GMT (0214 ET), down 64 cents, or 1.3%, from their last close. 
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 72 cents, or 1.5%, at $47.38 a barrel. 
Reinforcing concerns about market oversupply, US crude stockpiles surprisingly rose last week, even though gasoline inventories fell sharply and distillate stocks drew, data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute showed on Tuesday. 
The API reported that US crude inventories rose by 4.5 million barrels last week, a surprising build versus analyst expectations' for a draw of 500,000 barrels. 
There was a substantial draw in gasoline stocks of 2.1 million, significantly bigger than expected, while distillates recorded a draw of 0.8 million barrels on the week.