RoydadNaft –   Brent crude futures fell 70 cents, or 0.7%, to $101.61 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures also fell 85 cents, or 0.9%, to $92.02 a barrel.

According to Roydad Naft, citing Reuters, oil prices fell on Friday after a sharp increase in the previous session as the market refocused on signs of improving oil supplies from the Middle East, although the possibility of renewed tensions between the United States and Iran continued to provide support for oil prices.

Brent crude futures were down 70 cents, or 0.7%, at $101.61 a barrel as of 6:35 a.m. GMT, after trading slightly higher in early Friday trading. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 85 cents, or 0.9%, to $92.02 a barrel. Both benchmarks were on track for weekly declines.

Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, said, “The market is taking stock of a distinctly mixed set of signals this week.” He added that after volatile trading on Thursday, traders were “simply taking a breather.”

Waterer said, “A healthier Saudi export picture is being offset by reports of another U.S. aircraft carrier heading toward the Persian Gulf and China’s decision to curb refined product exports.”

Oil prices settled higher in the previous session after Reuters reported that Chinese refiners had suspended refined product exports for October as Beijing sought to preserve domestic inventories.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported that the United States was sending a third aircraft carrier and as many as 10,000 additional troops to the Middle East as U.S. President Donald Trump considered resuming strikes on Iran after the U.S. midterm elections.

Priyanka Sachdeva, head of market insights at Phillip Nova, said, “The more immediate concern is the availability and movement of Middle Eastern crude and refined products to the rest of the world.”

Sachdeva added that the $100-a-barrel level has now become a key psychological and market-positioning threshold, with the market “increasingly pricing in a world where supply chains remain vulnerable for longer.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has told Germany and France to draw down their emergency diesel inventories to help ease soaring global fuel prices or potentially face a U.S. ban on diesel exports, according to three people familiar with the discussions.

A source told Reuters that the United States has asked the European Union to release 120 million barrels of diesel from its reserves over the next six months. EU member states collectively hold nearly 109 million metric tons of emergency crude oil and fuel stocks.

Mukesh Sahdev, chief oil analyst at XAnalysts, said, “U.S. pressure on European countries to release oil is also helping to keep prices in check.”