RoydadNaft –  Brent crude futures dropped $1.65, or 1.6%, to $103.17 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures fell 61 cents, or 0.6%, to $101.30 a barrel.

Oil prices fell Friday, extending losses for a third straight session as easing concerns over Saudi supply disruptions outweighed anxiety about a widening conflict across the Middle East.

Brent crude futures fell $1.65, or 1.6%, to $103.17 a barrel by 10:08 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were down 61 cents, or 0.6%, at $101.30.

Benchmark Brent prices are on track for their first weekly loss in three weeks, down 1.4%.

Immediate concerns over tight supply have eased thanks to a mix of Saudi Arabia loading more crude via Oman, a build in oil product inventories in the United States, Singapore and Europe, and higher fuel exports from China, said PVM Oil Associates analyst Tamas Varga.

“While continuous pre-weekend profit-taking cannot be ruled out, the current fundamental outlook would not justify a prolonged fall below $100 a barrel on a Brent basis,” Varga added.

Markets largely shrugged off the latest threats even as Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis exchanged fresh strikes across their border on Thursday, widening the Middle East war front.

Prices climbed toward four-month highs earlier in the week after sources said crude loadings at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea export hub of Yanbu had been suspended and Riyadh canceled some deliveries to Europe after its East-West pipeline was damaged in an attack last week.

Prices have since cooled on reports that Saudi Arabia is seeking to restore about half the capacity of its East-West oil pipeline within days. Sources who spoke to Reuters have given varying estimates of how long it will take to reopen the pipeline and return crude flows to normal.

Chinese exports of refined oil products in August rose 12.7% year on year, with jet fuel exports hitting a record high, customs data showed Friday. China is expected to keep easing export controls in September so it can take advantage of stronger overseas margins.

Refined product stocks grew by 3.7 million barrels last week, according to a Morgan Stanley note, driven by builds in the West and Singapore.

“The key question is whether physical flows can normalize and what the timeline could be. If we see a sustained improvement in Hormuz traffic, some of the geopolitical premium can unwind further,” said Priyanka Sachdeva, head of market insights at Phillip Nova.

Moving oil through the region remains risky, however.

Four commodities vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf on Thursday, below the 10-day average of about 16, preliminary shipping data showed Friday. Three liquefied natural gas vessels also reappeared outside the strait on Thursday, Kpler data showed.

The figures could change, as some ships typically switch off their transponders during the voyage to avoid detection in the conflict zone.

The United States and Iran have held no peace talks since the collapse of an interim agreement reached in June. The war is expected to come up at the United Nations General Assembly next week, and an Iranian delegation will be able to attend, according to the U.S. State Department.