Oil prices fell on Wednesday as concerns over Saudi Arabia’s ability to maintain crude exports eased and U.S. inventory data showed a smaller-than-expected draw in crude stocks. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 3.2% to settle at $102.43 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, declined 2.7% to $105.83 per barrel. Despite Wednesday’s decline, oil prices remain more than 16% higher this month as the conflict in the Middle East has sharply escalated.

Saudi Arabia is offering additional crude cargoes to Asian refiners through ship-to-ship transfers off Oman’s Sohar port, helping offset some of the supply disruption caused by attacks on the country’s East-West Pipeline. The additional export options eased concerns that the pipeline outage would result in a larger loss of Saudi crude from global markets.

The Strait of Hormuz remains heavily restricted. Preliminary shipping data showed only four visible vessel passages on Tuesday, down from seven the previous day and well below the 10-day average of 18. Before the conflict began, the strait handled approximately one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.

U.S. inventory data also pressured crude prices. The Energy Information Administration reported that U.S. crude inventories declined by approximately 640,000 barrels last week, considerably less than the 1.62-million-barrel draw analysts had expected. Gasoline and distillate inventories both increased, with the rise in diesel inventories larger than expected.

The inventory figures provided some relief to the market by showing that refined-product supplies remain available despite the ongoing disruptions. However, diesel remains a major concern for global energy markets.

Diesel markets continue to face pressure from disruptions in the Middle East and Russia. The region is a major supplier of both diesel and the crude grades used to produce it, while Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries have further reduced available refining capacity. European gasoil and U.S. ultra-low sulfur diesel futures both reached record closing levels earlier this week.

Russia has also decided to extend restrictions on diesel exports for fuel producers through the end of October, adding another potential constraint to global diesel supplies.