Oil held above $71 a barrel on Tuesday, supported by falling Venezuelan and Iranian exports and fighting in Libya that raised concerns of more supply threats, outweighing expectations of higher U.S. inventories.
In Libya, fighting between Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army and the internationally-recognised government has raised the prospect of lower supplies from another OPEC member. US sanctions on two others, Iran and Venezuela, are cutting shipments.
“Collapsing Venezuelan oil output and sanctioned Iranian exports have a put big question mark over supply,” said Norbert Ruecker of Swiss bank Julius Baer.
