Oil futures fell Tuesday, with analysts noting that nearby futures on U.S. benchmark crude have slumped below laterdated contracts, reflecting concerns over a buildup in inventories after last months Texas deep freeze.

West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery was down 76 cents, or 1.1, at 64.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The May WTI contract changed hands at 64.70 and has traded at a premium to the nearby month for three sessions, a condition known as contango.

A bearish contango structure for WTI is not surprising many given the strong build in inventories over the past couple of weeks, said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, in a note.

May Brent crude the global benchmark, was down 82 cents, or 1.2, at 68.06 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.

The Energy Information Administration reported last week that U.S. crude inventories rose by 13.8 million barrels for the week ended March 5. That followed a hefty 21.6 millionbarrel climb the week before as domestic refinery activity continued to recover from midFebruary winter storms in Texas. 

Crude futures shook off the rising inventories previously, aided by strong falls in gasoline and other products. But analysts said the size of the buildup, a persistently firmer tone for the U.S. dollar, a troubled vaccine rollout in Europe and jitters over the potential for COVID19 variants to cause problems in the U.S. were sufficient to cool a crude rally that still sees both WTI and Brent up more…