Crude futures in Europe and the U.S. were heading in different directions Tuesday on unclear market signals.
December Brent on London's ICE futures exchange was up 21 cents, or 0.19%, at $106.43 a barrel. The December contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down 25 cents, or 0.26%, at $94.37 a barrel.
"ICE Brent fell to a four-month low during yesterday's trading before recovering later in the day to settle at $106.23 per barrel," noted analysts at JBC Energy Markets.
In the Middle East, a key region for oil production and transit, both Egypt and Libya are being watched by market participants.
"The situation in Egypt is also likely to come back into focus given that the trial of ousted former president Morsi began yesterday, meaning that renewed conflicts between Morsi's supporters and opponents are on the cards," wrote analysts at Commerzbank in a note to clients. Outages in Libya could provide some support to Brent prices going forward, they said.
Crude is seeing subdued trading since the Federal Reserve Open Markets Committee indicated that its confidence in economic recovery is not as robust as some had hoped.
"After last week's FOMC meeting, which left QE [quantitative easing] unchanged, front month crude prices have declined 3.5% on the weaker outlook, " wrote Kash Kamal, research analyst at Sucden Research in a note to clients.
Mr Kamal also noted that U.S. West Texas Intermediate contract faced "newly found resistance towards $95" per barrel, as the U.S. market is currently well-supplied with crude.
The ICE's gasoil contract for November delivery was up $3.50 cents, or 0.39%, at $907.50 a metric ton, while Nymex gasoline for December delivery was up 21 points at $2.5303 a gallon.
