LONDON, Oct 9: Oil prices were slightly lower on Wednesday as news of an attack on military targets in Iraq, and data which revealed another sharp drop in weekly US crude inventories, failed to prevent a technical sell off.

In London, a barrel of Brent crude for November delivery was trading at $28.05, four cents down on its previous close.

In New York, a barrel of reference light sweet crude for November delivery slipped two cents to $29.46 in early deals.

“The Iraqi headline seemed to trigger some buy stops but then sellers moved back in,” said Prudential Bache oil broker Tony Machacek.

Prices briefly rallied following official data on US inventories.

Figures released earlier by the US energy department (DoE) showed crude stocks fell 4.7m barrels to 270.5m in the week to October 4. That compared with estimates from the American Petroleum Institute (API), a private trade association, which late Tuesday reported that US crude stocks had fallen by just 2.6 million barrels in the same period.

“Prices remain supported by the market’s interpretation of the DoE figures,” said Williams de Broe analyst Andrew Whittock immediately after the release of the report.—AFP