The price of Brent crude oil declined below $83 a barrel today amid abundant supplies.

Reuters reported that Brent crude for December was down 15 cents at $82.80 a barrel, while US crude slipped 10 cents to $78.58.

"US crude inventories increased 460,000 barrels in the week to 31 October."

The potential for an agreement between Iran and world powers on its nuclear programme also impacted oil prices.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said that an agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries would be harder to achieve after the 24 November deadline, indicating an urgency before planned talks in Oman next week.

Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix, a Swiss energy consultancy, was quoted by the news agency as saying: "If sanctions on Iran are eased, one needs to review once again the supply and demand balance."

Data from the Energy Information Administration has revealed that US crude inventories increased 460,000 barrels in the week to 31 October.

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Meanwhile, production fell by about 200,000 barrels a day in Libya on Wednesday on news that El Sharara oilfield has been occupied by gunmen.

Rumours of a pipeline explosion in Saudi Arabia led to a sharp increase in prices for a short period of time; however, prices soon declined after confirmation that a fire in the diesel pipeline was under control.

Energy