Oil prices fall as economic concerns counter tightening supplies

Brent crude futures climbed 24 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $79.30 a barrel. WTI futures gained 2.5 percent in the previous session.

The price of West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, was up 1.20 percent to $70.45 per barrel early Wednesday afternoon.

USA crude oil production in 2018 is expected to grow 1.31 million barrels per day to 10.66 million bpd, little changed from EIA's previous forecast.

Russia, the United States and Saudi Arabia are the world's three biggest oil producers by far, meeting around a third of the world's nearly 100 million barrels per day of daily crude consumption.

Also supporting prices were supply concerns surrounding US sanctions on Iran.

While analysts and market participants are estimating how much Iranian crude oil will come off the market with the US sanctions, signs have started to emerge that Iran's refined oil products and condensate flows are also being disrupted, according to an S&P Global Platts analysis, citing trade and market sources and trade flow data.

The International Energy Agency said Thursday that the global oil supply reached 100 million barrels a day for the first time ever, boosted by rising production in the US and several OPEC nations.

"We are dealing with two issues separately and our stand has been communicated to the United States", added the official on being questioned to whether higher American oil imports could mean replacing Iranian crude.

Official weekly government data will be published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.

In addition, the European Union, which had previously joined the U.S.in targeting Iranian oil exports in 2012, has shown its unwillingness to follow Washington's lead this time around, openly vowing to rebel against the USA sanctions regimen and increasing the likelihood that Europe will continue to buy some Iranian oil despite US threats. "The last couple of weeks have seen the expected squeeze on Iranian crude flows taking shape, with overall outflows down markedly", consultancy JBC Energy said.

Outside the United States, traders have been focusing on the impact of USA sanctions against Iran that will target oil exports from November.

Novak said global oil markets were "fragile" due to geopolitical risk and supply disruptions. Higher volumes by Saudi Arabia and Nigeria and an increase in production in Iraq and Libya helped to outweigh the drops. As Florence moves closer to the southeastern coast of the US, the storm appears likely to strengthen, forecasters said. World ask will hit a excessive of a hundred.three million bpd in the closing quarter of this twelve months, earlier than moderating to Ninety 9.three million bpd in the first quarter of subsequent twelve months, the company said.