London — Oil prices fell on Friday and were set for a weekly loss as investors sought to book profits, despite tension in the Middle East that have slashed supplies of crude. Brent crude futures were down 47c at $56.76 a barrel at 9.54am GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $50.75 a barrel, down 54c. "There’s a little bit of profit-taking," Olivier Jakob, chief strategist at consultancy Petromatrix, said. "The market has really been treading a small range all of this week without any true momentum," he added. Oil exports from Iraq’s Kurdistan towards the Turkish port of Ceyhan were flowing at average rates on Friday of 216,000 barrels a day versus the usual flows of 600,000 barrels a day, a shipping source said. Iraqi troops regained control of two major oilfields northwest of Kirkuk from Kurdish Peshmerga forces this week, and the oil ministry in Baghdad expects to bring the fields back on stream on Sunday. In a major development, Russia’s biggest oil company...
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