Oil prices fall more than 1pc as supply concerns ease — Pajhwok

KABUL (Pajhwok): Global oil prices fell by more than 1 percent on Thursday as concerns over supply disruptions eased after Saudi Arabia offered Asian refineries the option of receiving additional crude shipments through Oman. Reuters reported that Brent crude fell 1.2 percent, or $1.24, to $104.59 a barrel in early trading on Thursday. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude also declined 1.1 percent, or $1.14, to $101.29 a barrel. Both benchmarks had dropped by about $3 on Wednesday. According to the report, Saudi Arabia has offered Asian refineries the option of receiving more crude through ship-to-ship transfers near Oman’s Sohar port. The move eased concerns over potential supply shortages following an attack on Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline. “Concerns over supply tightness eased slightly following news that Saudi Arabia would ship cargo via Oman,” Hiroyuki Kikukawa, chief strategist at Nissan Securities Investment, a unit of Nissan Securities, said. He added that expectations of progress toward easing tensions in the Middle East ahead of next week’s US-China summit were also limiting gains in oil prices. Oil prices had climbed to their highest level in about four months earlier this week after shipping industry sources reported that crude loadings at Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port on the Red Sea had been halted and that Riyadh had cancelled some oil shipments to European customers….