(Bloomberg) — Oil held the biggest drop in three weeks after breaching a key moving average, with prices still trapped in a tight trading range.
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Brent steadied below $82 a barrel after declining by 2.5% on Friday, with West Texas Intermediate above $76. Futures sank below their 200-day moving average in the week’s final trading session, triggering some algorithmic selling.
Crude has been trading in a narrow band of about $3 for the past two weeks, with tensions in the Middle East and OPEC+ supply curbs offsetting the impact of higher production from outside the group, including the US. OPEC+ is widely expected to prolong its current cutbacks into the next quarter at its meeting in March.
In North Africa, meanwhile, there was a minor interruption to flows from Libya. Shipments from the 50,000-barrel-a-day Wafa oil field were halted on Sunday due to protests, a person familiar with the matter said.
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