Brent crude headed for a third weekly loss this month amid speculation that plentiful oil supplies will buffer the market from unrest in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate was steady in New York.
Futures were little changed in London, down 1.3 percent this week. The broadest Arab-U.S. military coalition since the 1991 Gulf War struck Islamic State targets in Syria this week. In Iraq, where U.S. aircraft began bombing the group in August, unrest has largely spared the south, home to about three quarters of output from OPEC’s second-largest producer. Production in Libya climbed to 925,000 barrels a day, according to National Oil Corp.
“Although the conflict in Syria hasn’t been completely solved, it looks like the issues are now having less impact on crude prices,” Will Yun, a commodities analyst at Hyundai Futures Co. in Seoul, said by phone today. “With ample supplies, we may see a further decrease in prices.”
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