Summary Brent North Sea crude for December dropped 21 cents to stand at $108.63 a barrel around midday.
LONDON (AFP) - Oil prices fell Friday owing to large crude stockpiles in the United States but losses were capped thanks to strong manufacturing output in China and Libyan supply strains, analysts said.
New York s main contract West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light sweet crude for delivery in December slipped 15 cents to $96.23 a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for December dropped 21 cents to stand at $108.63 a barrel around midday in London.
Sucden brokers analyst Kash Kamal said "traders and investors continued to analyse higher-than-expected crude oil inventories in the US".
Analysts at Commerzbank noted that Brent, a reference for Middle East crude, was supported by "ongoing supply outages in Libya".
They added in a note to clients: "Better-than-expected Chinese data are also lending additional support."
China s manufacturing purchasing managers index climbed to 51.4 last month from 51.1 in September, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.
The PMI reading was the highest since 53.3 in April 2012. Anything above 50 indicates expansion while a figure below signals contraction.
"That report helped stop the slide in oil futures," Victor Shum of energy consultants IHS Purvin and Gertz told AFP.
Singapore-based Shum said Brent prices were supported also by the uncertainty over Libya s oil production, despite an announcement by its National Oil Corp that the Al-Harriga terminal will resume operations on Monday at the latest.
The terminal, which has a capacity of 110,000 barrels a day, has been closed along with several other terminals by protesters demanding jobs and a more equitable distribution of oil revenues.
Libyan crude production has been disrupted for several months by the labour unrest, and output slashed to as little as 300,000 barrels a day from 1.5 million-1.6 million before the showdown began.
Production had increased in recent weeks, but an uptick in protests has raised concerns about exports from the country. "The problem with Libya is that there is no central authority looking after oil so production is often disrupted by protests. So Libyan oil output continues to struggle," Shum said.
