Ammon News - Oil prices fell on Wednesday, extending a plunge of more than 4% the previous day, on expectations that a political dispute halting Libyan exports could be resolved and concerns over lower global demand growth.

Brent crude futures for November fell 37 cents, or 0.5%, to $73.38 by 0330 GMT, after the previous session's fall of 4.9%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures for October were down 41 cents, or 0.6%, at $69.93, after dropping 4.4% on Tuesday.

Both contracts fell to their lowest since December on signs of a deal to resolve the political dispute between rival factions in Libya that cut output by about half and curbed exports.

In China, the world's biggest importer of crude, recent data showed that manufacturing activity sank to a six-month low in August, when growth in new home prices slowed.

Weekly U.S. inventory data has been delayed by Monday's Labor Day holiday. The report from the American Petroleum Institute is due at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT) on Wednesday and data from the Energy Information Administration will be published at 11:00 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) on Thursday.

U.S. crude oil and gasoline stockpiles were expected to have fallen last week, while distillate inventories probably rose, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Tuesday.

Reuters