Crude Oil Falls Below $103

Crude oil fell below $103 a barrel on Wednesday, extending its retreat after two sessions of gains as the US administration sought to ease concerns over disruptions to Saudi oil supplies. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Saudi Arabia’s damaged East-West pipeline should resume operations within days, describing the outage as temporary. However, independent analysts warned that repairs could take several weeks. While the pipeline remains offline, Saudi Arabia has moved to increase crude exports through the Strait of Hormuz with US military assistance. Meanwhile, US government data showed crude inventories fell by 640,000 barrels to 423.4 million barrels in the week ended September 11, although the decline was smaller than analysts had expected. Stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, hub also decreased. The data contrasted sharply with the American Petroleum Institute’s previous estimate of a 7.1 million-barrel increase in crude inventories.