00:00Oil prices fell on Wednesday after reports that Saudi Arabia was offering additional crude cargoes through Oman East some concerns
00:08about Middle East supply disruption,
00:10while smaller-than-expected trend in U.S. crude inventories added further downward pressure.
00:17Brand crude features fell $2.92, or 2.7%, to settle at $105.83.
00:24A barrel U.S. West Texas Intermediate features fell $3.40, or 3.2%, to close at $102.43.
00:36Saudi Arabia is offering more loadings of crude oil to Asian refiners via ship-to-ship transfers of Oman's Soha
00:43port,
00:43people familiar with the matter said, blunting some of the heat to global supply from attacks on the country's east
00:49-west pipeline to the Red Sea.
00:51UBS analyst Giovanni Stavnovo said news around Saudi Arabia exporting from the Gulf suggests concerns that disruption could be larger
01:00are easing.
01:01Oil prices had gained more than $3 in the previous session after shipping industry sources said crude loadings at Saudi
01:07Arabia's Red Sea Export Hub of Yanbu had been suspended
01:11and Riyadh had cancelled some cargo deliveries to European customers.
01:16This suspension followed strikes on the east-west pipeline, which feeds the Saudi port of Yanbu.
01:22Yanbu became Saudi Arabia's main outlet for all exports after Iran began blockading the Strait of Hormuz
01:28after U.S. and Israeli attacks on the country at the end of February.
01:32Prior to the war, Hormuz was the conduit for the one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas
01:37supply.
01:37Visible vessels passage through the Strait of Hormuz remained in the single digits at four on Tuesday, down from seven
01:44a day earlier.
01:45Preliminary shipping data showed on Wednesday that was well below the 10-day average of 18.
01:50Oil prices came under further pressure after the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday reported smaller-than-expected draw
01:57from U.S. crude inventories last week.
01:59Crude oil stocks in the top-producing nation fell about 640,000 barrels last week, the EIA data showed,
02:07compared to expectations of a 1.62 million barrel draw, according to a Reuters poll of energy analysis.
02:14U.S. gasoline and distillate inventories rose last week, EIA data showed.
02:19The rise in diesel inventories was bigger than expected, while gasoline stockpiles were expected to have declined last week, according
02:26to Reuters poll.
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