Singapore — Oil prices fell on Wednesday, weighed down by renewed concern about oversupply as Libyan output improves and after US petrol inventories rose despite the peak summer driving season. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $51.75 a barrel at 4.15am GMT, down 12c or 0.2% from their last close. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $47.72 a barrel, down 11c or 0.2%. Libya’s Sharara oil field, the country’s largest, was gradually restarting on Tuesday after a shutdown. Sharara recently reached output of 280,000 barrels a day but closed earlier this month due to a pipeline blockade. Its production is key to Libya’s oil output, which surged above 1-million barrels a day in late June, about four times what it was producing last summer. Libya’s rising output is a headache for the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), which together with non-Opec producers including Russia has pledged to hold back about 1.8-mil...
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