LONDON: Brent crude oil fell on Thursday, as fears about conflict causing export disruption from Iraq, OPEC's second-largest producer, subsided further.
Oil hit a nine-month high a week ago on fears that conflict in Iraq could split the country and hit oil exports, but it has since retreated as production has been largely unaffected by the fighting.
Iraq's southern oilfields, which produce most of the nation's 3.3 million barrels a day, remained safe, said Nickolay Mladenov, United Nations special envoy to Iraq.
But insurgents and Iraqi government forces continued to fight on Wednesday for control of the country's largest refinery, the 300,000-barrels-per-day Baiji complex, with troops being airlifted into the site by helicopter.
Analysts said that there was scope for further upside shocks to the oil price if more negative headlines emerge from the conflict-torn country.
"It's not far from the year's high and will pop up again if there are further incursions into Iraq towards Baghdad or the southern oilfields," Michael Hewson, analyst at CMC Markets.
Brent crude oil had fallen 43 cents to $113.57 a barrel by 1127 GMT, after hitting its highest since September at $115.71 last Thursday. It traded below $110 per barrel for most of early June.
Militants attacked one of Iraq's largest air bases and seized control of several small oilfields on Wednesday as U.S. special forces troops and intelligence analysts arrived to help Iraqi security forces counter the mounting insurgency.
However, there were hopes that oil exports could increase from Kurdistan, which would counter any potential slowdown of shipments from the south.
Iraq's self-ruling Kurds outlined plans on Wednesday to ramp up oil exports now that their forces have seized control of Iraq's main northern oilfields.
U.S. crude fell 5 cents to $106.45 a barrel. It had gained 47 cents in the previous session on news Washington would allow exports of condensate, an ultra-light oil, in a marginal relaxation of a 40-year ban on U.S. oil exports.
Enterprise Products Partners, one of two companies given Department of Commerce approval on Tuesday to export condensate, said it could start exporting any time.
STOCKS RISE
Also putting pressure on prices, U.S. crude inventories unexpectedly rose by 1.74 million barrels last week to 388 million barrels, data from the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration showed.
Hewson at CMC Markets added that disappointing economic data from the United States in the previous session was helping to cap oil prices.
"Global growth remains weak so there are no demand factors pulling us higher," he said.
However there was some slightly more optimistic news from Europe for the demand outlook.
Germany's economy will grow by 2.0 percent this year, Ifo institute said on Thursday, slightly raising its previous forecast on expectations that companies will invest more again and drive domestic demand.
Investors are also keeping an eye on the threat of further sanctions on Russia by western powers if Moscow does not do more to defuse the conflict between pro-Russian separatists and Kiev in eastern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, two weeks of talks between Iran and six world powers to reach a final agreement over Tehran's nuclear programme will start in Vienna on July 2, Russia's ambassador to the U.N. said.
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