US oil prices fall as investors gauge risks to Mideast supply

TOKYO, Oct 29 : Benchmark US crude futures fell around $1 on Thursday, paring some of the previous day's gains, as traders weighed the risk that escalating Middle East conflict could further disrupt regional energy supplies.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 92 cents, or 0.9 per cent, at $101.86, after dropping as low as $101.75 a barrel. They had risen 3 per cent on Wednesday.

Yemen's Houthis attacked Aden airport on Wednesday, government forces said, after the Iran-aligned group warned people to evacuate it as fighting surged in the impoverished country ensnared in the Middle East conflict.

On Tuesday, the Houthis said they hit Saudi Arabia's biggest oil refinery with a missile, as they stepped up strikes against the world's second-largest crude producer after the US.

Saudi authorities did not immediately confirm the strike on the 550,000-barrel-per-day facility.

Qatari mediators have presented Iran with a new draft deal to end the war with the US and Israel, an official briefed on the negotiations said, but a senior Iranian official described them only as unacceptable ideas that did not amount to an offer.