Global oil prices diverged on Wednesday as traders digested the latest US crude inventories report and simmering tensions in Libya, analysts said. New York's main contract West Texas Intermediate for February delivery fell $US1.34 to $US92.33 per barrel. Brent North crude fell 20 cents to stand at $US107.15 a barrel. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Wednesday that US crude inventories slid by 2.7 million barrels in the week to January 3, in the sixth successive weekly decline. However, the decline was lower than that posted by industry body the American Petroleum Institute (API), which said Tuesday that inventories plunged 7.3 million barrels last week. "Expectations had risen for another big drop in oil stocks" after the API numbers, said Forex.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada. However, this was not the case as the EIA's numbers ... showed a drawdown of only 2.7 million, suggesting feeble demand. As a result, WTI dropped sharply and broke below $US93. Gold futures extended their earlier losses on Wednesday after details from the Federal Reserve's most recent meeting showed most policy makers agreed it was the right time to begin rolling back its stimulus. Gold for February delivery, the most actively traded contract, traded down $US7.60, or 0.6 per cent, at $US1,222 a troy ounce in electronic trading after Wednesday's settlement. Gold's more volatile sister metal silver fell 1.6 per cent to $US19.535 per ounce, near its lowest value of 2014. Futures had ended the regular session, before the release of the Fed minutes, down $US4.10, or 0.3 per cent, at $US1,225.50 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Many investors had piled into gold in recent years as a hedge against the inflation that could follow the Fed's efforts to boost economic growth. But despite trillions of dollars in Fed asset purchases, inflation in the US has remained tame. Now that the Fed is starting to reduce its monthly bond purchases, the risks of inflation seem even more muted, analysts say, further damping the appeal of gold to investors. Gold futures fell 28 per cent in 2013, as investors anticipated the Fed bond-buying reduction ultimately announced in December and flocked to surging equities markets. Fed officials "saw the economy was improving," said Chris Gaffney, a senior market strategist with EverBank. It's going to be tough for gold going forward. There's nothing in these minutes that will cause investors to move back into gold. Overall they still reflect that the US economy is on a positive path. Copper futures eased a bit on Wednesday on worries about the pace of demand from top consumer China and caution ahead of the release of details from the Federal Reserve's most recent policy meeting. The most actively traded copper contract, for March delivery, fell 1.7 cent, or 0.5 per cent, to settle at $US3.3425 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Copper has been under pressure since late last week after a slate of economic data on top consumer China raised worries about the pace of growth there.