New York: Brent crude prices fell to a 14-month low on Tuesday, giving up early gains as recovering Libyan output, sustained Iraqi production and weak demand offset concerns about threats to supply. "It is still under pressure from a combination of factors: plentiful supply, a lack of supply outages and weak refinery demand. In addition, the continued withdrawal of speculative financial investors is exacerbating the downward movement," Commerzbank said in a research note on Tuesday.
Brent crude oil for delivery in October was down 25 cents at $101.35 a barrel, after falling to $101.07, the lowest since June 2013, the same month Brent prices were last below $100 a barrel.
US front-month September CLc1 crude reversed and fell back a day ahead of its contract expiration and the US October also pushed lower after giving up early gains. US September crude was down 52 cents at $95.89 a barrel and U.S. October crude was off 37 cents at $93.38.
Russia's Lukoil said on Tuesday it had shipped 1 million barrels of oil produced from southern Iraq's giant West Qurna-2 oilfield, its first shipment from the field, despite a surge of violence in Iraq.
Libya is due to start loading its first crude oil tanker in a year from Es Sider port on Tuesday and Libya's National Oil Corp said the country's total oil production had risen to 562,000 bpd, up from 535,000 bpd at the weekend.
Threats to supply have not disappeared, as Iraqi forces halted a short-lived offensive to recapture Tikrit because of fierce resistance from Islamic state fighters.
