Oil falls as US crude inventories rise despite Saudi supply concerns

Oil prices declined on Wednesday after U.S. crude inventories unexpectedly increased, according to Reuters. Brent crude futures fell by 93 cents, or 0.86%, to $107.82 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures dropped by 97 cents, or 0.92%, to $104.86 a barrel. Both benchmarks had previously risen more than $3, reaching their highest levels since May 19 on Tuesday.

The suspension of oil loadings at Saudi Arabia's Yanbu port due to an attack on its East-West pipeline by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis spurred supply concerns, further contributing to the price drop. Saudi Arabia traditionally reroutes around 4 million barrels per day, or about 4% of global supply, through the pipeline to the Red Sea port.

The U.S. energy secretary indicated that crude should resume flowing through the pipeline within days, though estimates on the pipeline's offline duration varied. In Libya, unrelated to the conflict, the National Oil Corporation reported operations at three oil fields were suspended due to protesting members of the Petroleum Facilities Guard shutting a valve on the Hamada-Zawiya crude export pipeline.

However, Libya's oil production remained relatively stable at about 1.4 million barrels per day, according to the NOC Chairman Massoud Suleman.