Crude oil futures weakened Wednesday as traders awaited weekly data expected to show increases in U.S. crude and distillates stockpiles.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery fell $1.24 to $124.56 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on expectations that an Energy Department inventory report later Wednesday will show a big jump in crude supplies. In London, June Brent crude fell $1.74 to $122.36 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Energy Information Administration data scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) is expected to show that U.S. crude oil stockpiles rose by 1.8 million barrels, according to a Dow Jones Newswires poll of analysts, and reveal that distillates stockpiles climbed by 600,000 barrels.

The analysts on average estimate that gasoline stockpiles fell by 100,000 barrels last week and the rate of refinery use increased by 0.7 percentage point to 85.7% of capacity.

"We do not except any major price dislocations emanating from the data, as markets have been fairly resilient over the last two days" despite expected inventory builds, said Edward Meir, an analyst at brokerage MF Global.

Nymex crude futures have climbed in seven of the last eight sessions, touching a record intraday high of $126.98 a barrel Tuesday on a spike in heating oil and concerns about Iranian output. News reports at first indicated that Iran, the No. 2 producer among the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, would decrease oil production next month, but Iran's oil minister later dismissed the report.

Adding pressure to oil prices, Iran's departing OPEC governor, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, told Dow Jones Newswires the country is storing about 25 million barrels of heavy crude oil in tankers in the Persian Gulf as no buyers are stepping up to the plate.

"We are using about 10-12 vessels to store the crude," Ardebili said in an interview by phone from Tehran.

In other Nymex trading Wednesday, June gasoline futures fell 2.4 cents to $3.176 a gallon, and June heating oil futures fell 2.62 cents to $3.6727 a gallon. June natural gas futures rose 24.1 cents to $11.663 per 1,000 cubic feet.