SINGAPORE, Oct 12 Reuters Oil prices fell for a third day on Thursday, dragged down by a largerthanexpected crude and gasoline stockbuild in the U.S. and easing supply concerns.

Brent futures fell 43 cents, or 0.50, to 85.39 a barrel at 0623 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude retreated 53 cents, or 0.63, to 82.96 a barrel.

Both benchmarks have given back most earlyweek gains after falling more than 2 in the previous session.

U.S. crude oil stockpiles swelled by about 12.9 million barrels, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Wednesday.

This was much higher than the 500,000barrel gain expected by analysts in a Reuters poll.

Unlikely to help sentiment this morning are API inventory numbers…Lower refinery run rates due to maintenance likely contributed to this build, said ING analysts in a client note.

Gasoline inventories also rose by 3.6 million barrels, the data showed, a stark contrast from the 800,000barrel drop expected by analysts and continued to stoke worries of slowing fuel demand in the U.S.

Fuel prices may be closer to consumers39; pain threshold than inflationadjusted prices might suggest. There are already signs that consumers have responded by cutting back on fuel consumption, JP Morgan analysts said in a client note.

In PADD 5, of which California is the biggest consumer, we estimate gasoline demand dropped 100,000 barrels per day between June and September, to a sevenmonth low of 1.46 million…