Crude oil futures continued to edge lower today, following on from losses in the previous session as Russian authorities strove to reassure the market that exports would continue.
At 12.08 p.m., the front-month Brent October futures contract was down 21 cents at $42.82 per barrel.
The US new front-month October-dated futures contract was down 12 cents at $45.93 per barrel. All of these factors have contributed to US futures coming down by 5 per cent, or $3.5 per barrel since riday's record highs, they added.
Oil exports from southern Iraq are moving at a rate of 83,000 barrels an hour, which is about the normal flow, through two pipelines in the south, a South Oil Co official in Basra told Agence France-Presse.
Analysts said Iraqi oil exports are now looking stronger than they have for several months with the larger of the two southern pipelines opened after a two-week halt, and because northern Iraqi oil flows are also under way.
In addition, Putin's 15-minute telephone conversation with US President George Bush, during which Putin said oil companies in Russia will raise crude production, also cooled prices, which last week approached the $50 mark.