New York: Brent crude prices fell to a 14-month low on Tuesday, giving up early gains as recovering Libyan output, sustained Iraqi production and weak demand offset concerns about threats to supply.
"It is still under pressure from a combination of factors: plentiful supply, a lack of supply outages and weak refinery demand. In addition, the continued withdrawal of speculative financial investors is exacerbating the downward movement," Commerzbank said in a research note on Tuesday.
Brent crude oil for delivery in October was down 25 cents at USD 101.35 a barrel at 11:18 a.m. EDT (1418 GMT), after falling to USD 101.07, the lowest since June 2013, the same month Brent prices were last below USD 100 a barrel.
U.S. front-month September CLc1 crude reversed and fell back a day ahead of its contract expiration and the U.S. October also pushed lower after giving up early gains.
U.S. September crude was down 52 cents at USD 95.89 a barrel and U.S. October crude was off 37 cents at USD 93.38.
Russia`s Lukoil said on Tuesday it had shipped 1 million barrels of oil produced from southern Iraq`s giant West Qurna-2 oilfield, its first shipment from the field, despite a surge of violence in Iraq.
Libya is due to start loading its first crude oil tanker in a year from Es Sider port on Tuesday and Libya`s National Oil Corp said the country`s total oil production had risen to 562,000 bpd, up from 535,000 bpd at the weekend.
Threats to supply have not disappeared, as Iraqi forces halted a short-lived offensive to recapture Tikrit because of fierce resistance from Islamic state fighters.
The truce between Israel said militants broke down on Tuesday, putting talks in Cairo on a long-term ceasefire in jeopardy.
British inflation eased more than expected in July after hitting a five-month high in June and U.S. housing starts rebounded strongly in July, while a moderate increase in consumer prices suggested the Federal Reserve has room to keep interest rates low for a while.
"Headlines about Iraq`s output were bearish, but the strong U.S. housing data and the downtick in UK inflation are both supportive, as the UK data forestalls a Bank of England interest rate hike," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC.
U.S. commercial crude oil and refined product stockpiles were forecast to have fallen in the week to Aug. 15, a preliminary Reuters survey of analysts showed.
The first inventory snapshot is due from industry group the American Petroleum Institute (API) at 4:30 p.m. EDT. The U.S. Energy Information Administration`s (EIA) report is due on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EDT.
