price movement
Brent crude futures rose 25 cents, or 0.31 percent, to $79.80 a barrel by 0209 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 17 cents, or 0.23 percent, to $75.70, according to Reuters data.
This comes after a decline of more than 2 percent on Tuesday that ended a three-day winning streak of more than 7 percent, as concerns about declining refining profits weighed on the outlook for fuel demand amid data indicating that global consumption growth is below expectations this year.
The market also received support from data released late Tuesday showing a decline in US crude and fuel inventories last week.
But the biggest risk remains the potential loss of supply from Libya, where production of about 1.2 million barrels per day could be halted amid a political dispute and an escalation of Israel’s war in Gaza involving militants in Lebanon and forces from Iran, a major producer in the Middle East.
“Geopolitical risks continue to loom over the market,” analysts at ANZ said in a note.
Production has been halted at several fields across Libya as the closure of fields widens amid a dispute over the leadership of the central bank and the management of the country’s oil revenues, oilfield engineers told Reuters on Tuesday.
There has been no confirmation of any closure from the internationally recognised government in Tripoli, which relies mainly on revenues from oil fields, or from the National Oil Corporation, which manages Libya’s oil resources.
But engineers at the Amal and Nafoora oil fields in the southeast of the country told Reuters that production had stopped, while engineers at the Abu Attifel field, also in the east, said oil production had decreased.
Fighting continued in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas militants, with no signs of a tangible breakthrough in ceasefire talks in Cairo.
The lack of progress in the talks comes at the same time that Israel and the Hezbollah group in Lebanon exchanged fire on the border over the weekend.
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