U.S. crude oil falls nearly 2%, selloff gains speed as market dismisses Libya disruption

U.S. crude oil fell nearly 2% Wednesday to trade around $74 per barrel, as the market continues to shed gains made earlier in the week on the threat of supply disruptions in Libya.

“Oil prices remain range-bound, despite the potential of a large disruption in Libyan supplies and elevated tensions in the Middle East,” Amarpreet Singh, energy analyst at Barclay’s, told clients Tuesday.

Singh said this is due to lackluster demand in China, risks of a broader economic slowdown, and few signs that OPEC+ will back off plans to increase production in the fourth quarter.

U.S. crude oil settled more than 2% lower on Tuesday.

Here are Wednesday’s energy prices:

• West Texas Intermediate October contract: $74.16 per barrel, down $1.38, or 1.83%. Year to date, U.S. oil has gained 3.5%.
• Brent October contract: $78.26 per barrel, down $1.29, or 1.62%. Year to date, the global benchmark is ahead 1.6%.
• RBOB Gasoline September contract: $2.20 per gallon, down more than 4 cents, or 1.92%. Year to date, gasoline is up 4.82%.
• Natural Gas September contract: $1.89 per thousand cubic feet, down more than 2 cents, or 0.95%. Year to date, gas is down 25%.

Some 1.2 million barrels per day of oil are at risk as rival governments in Libya are locked in a dispute over who should lead the country’s central bank.

The eastern government in Benghazi threatened Monday to shut down all production and exports, which triggered a rally in oil prices. But crude futures have pulled back as it remains unclear how much supply has actually gone offline in the OPEC member.

Several oilfields have halted production in Libya, engineers told Reuters. But the U.N.-recognized government in Tripoli and the country’s national oil corporation have not confirmed any outages.