Oil tolls fell on Monday as concerns about supply disruptions eased and Libyan anchorages resumed export activities, while traders eyed potential quantity increases by Russia and other oil producers.
Brent crude futures were down 26 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $75.07 a barrel at 0057 GMT.
U.S. West Texas Halfway (WTI) crude was down 27 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $70.74 a barrel.
Accommodate outages in Libya and strike action in Norway and Iraq pushed oil tolls higher late last week, although prices still stopped down for a second straight week.
“Crude oil prices fell as quake ats of supply disruptions eased. News that Libya’s state oil in had restarted output from a major oil field ignited the selloff earlier in the week,” ANZ Bank maintained in a note.
The market focus shifted towards possible supply inflates, even as a Norwegian union for workers on offshore oil and gas drilling rigs stepped up a six-day mutiny.
Russia and other major oil producers may increase output further should purveying shortages hit the global oil market, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday.
Stephen Innes, conclusion of trading for Asia/Pacific at futures brokerage OANDA, said U.S.-China buy tensions “should subside this week and could be a possible and for oil prices,” but a possible sale of U.S. oil reserves would weigh on prices.
“With the Trump oversight actively considering tapping into the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Supply, it could weigh negatively,” Innes said.
The United States cradles a reserve of about 660 million barrels, and the Trump administration was all in all drawing on the country’s oil reserve, which would increase supply, according to a Bloomberg crack.
Meanwhile, the number of rigs drilling in the United States remained unchanged at 863 in the week to July 13 as the anyhow of the growth slowed amid a fall in crude prices.