Oil prices tick higher as traders weigh renewed tensions over Iran against signs of improving regional supply and efforts to ease a global diesel shortage, Al Jazeera reports.

Brent crude has risen 29 cents to $102.60 a barrel as of 00:22 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) has gained 27 cents to $93.14 in early trading.

Prices had jumped sharply on Thursday after reports that the US was sending a third aircraft carrier and up to 10,000 additional troops to the Middle East as President Donald Trump weighs renewed strikes on Iran after the November midterm elections.

“Now I have to make a decision. They’ll either sign a very fair deal, or they won’t exist any longer,” Trump has told reporters at the White House, according to Reuters.

Market concerns were also fuelled by China’s decision to halt most fuel exports for October. But those pressures were partly offset by recovering Saudi oil exports and a US push for European countries to release emergency diesel reserves.