Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

An oil pump works at sunset Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012, in the desert oil fields of Sakhir, Bahrain. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali)

Oil slid from a nine-month high to below US$106 a barrel Thursday in Asia after a report showed U.S. crude supplies grew more than expected last week, suggesting demand remains sluggish.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was down 38 cents to $105.90 per barrel midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 3 cents to settle at $106.28, the highest since May, in New York on Wednesday. Brent crude was down 20 cents at $122.70 per barrel in London.

The American Petroleum Institute said late Wednesday that crude inventories rose 3.6 million barrels last week while analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had predicted an increase of 1.7 million barrels.

Inventories of gasoline added 314,000 barrels last week while distillates rose 630,000 barrels, the API said.

The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reports its weekly supply data later Thursday.