Benchmark North Sea Brent blend traded 59 cents a barrel lower at $14.34 as the data encouraged investors to take profits from oil's recent strong rally.

Last week, Brent posted a ten-month high of $15.28 as confidence grew in a producer plan to trim global oil supplies with a reduction in output.

But US petroleum industry statistics released late on Tuesday showed only small declines in the key market's gasoline and crude oil stocks in the week to April 2.

"The API statistics were a bit of a disappointment," said trader Tom Bentz of New York's Cresvale International.

The American Petroleum Institute report reminded dealers that oil producers still have a long way to go to drain the huge inventories that built up last year, driving oil prices down to a 22-year low.

"I think you are starting to see that the market is a bit tiredafter the rapid advancements of the past weeks," a London oil trader said.

Dealers said market confidence also had been dented by Venezuela's announcement on Tuesday that it would not meet the agreed April starting date for its share of OPEC output cuts decided last month.

Deputy Venezuelan oil minister Alvaro Silva said his country's 125,000 bpd reduction could not be achieved in one fell swoop.

But a Gulf official said Opec's biggest exporter, Saudi Arabia, remained confident that its fellow Opec producer would meet its commitment.

"Saudi Arabia is sure that Venezuela will stick to its commitments," said the Gulf official, who is familiar with Saudi oil policy.

In California, gasoline prices slipped from the high levels of recent weeks as New York gasoline futures slipped and restarted refineries relaxed a product shortage.

Dealers said buyers were scarce as sellers looked to unload more expensive gallons of product accumulated after three of San Francisco's five refineries werecrippled.

California's super-clean gasoline was offered as low as 90 cents a gallon in Los Angeles with buyers seen at 88 cents, dealers said. On Tuesday Los Angeles CARB was talked at 97 cents.

San Francisco area prices also fell in the spot market, between 90 and 98 cents for CARB unleaded compared to Tuesday's level of about 102 cents a gallon.

"I think prices got so elevated so quickly that now they are coming off hard," one dealer said.

Prices have slid by about a cent per day since Exxon said Thursday its Benicia refinery 69,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) catalytic cracker had returned on line.

"It's significant to the market because the cat cracker is so important for gasoline production and because it was uncertain how long they were going to be down for," said another trader.

Refining in the Bay Area remained crippled, with Tosco's 156,000 bpd Avon refinery still down after a February explosion. Dealers said they expected repairs to last several months at Chevron's Richmond refinery, whereoutput fell about 220,000 bpd after a blast at the site two weeks ago.

Gasoline prices in New York slipped after traders said weekly oil products inventory data this week showed a smaller draw than anticipated.

May gasoline contracts on NYMEX slipped 1.48 cents to 52.20 a gallon in midday trade.

The American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday gasoline stocks fell only 555,000 barrels, compared to a 2.5 million to 3.0 million barrel expected draw. U.S. Department of Energy data showed an even smaller decline in inventory of just 200,000 barrels over the week.