Oil steadies as investors eye Ukraine war, US inventories

By Alex Lawler

LONDON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Oil prices steadied on Wednesday, after falling in the previous session, as investors watched for fresh developments in the Ukraine war and weighed an industry report that showed a drop in U.S. crude inventories.

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Tuesday he will meet Ukrainian representatives in New York this week, adding that Washington is also in talks with Russia as it seeks to end the war.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 were down 4 cents at $67.18 a barrel as of 0820 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were down 3 cents at $63.22.

Both contracts fell more than 2% on Tuesday after beginning the week at their highest levels since early August.

Oil found some support on Wednesday from the American Petroleum Institute's weekly supply report, which market sources said showed U.S. crude, gasoline and distillate inventories fell last week. Official inventory data is out at 1430 GMT.

The API report is helping prices stabilise, said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM.

In recent developments, Russian refineries have been hit by Ukrainian drone attacks, forcing them to export the crude they cannot process.

Russia has revised up its crude oil export plan from western ports by 200,000 barrels per day in August from the initial schedule after attacks last week, three people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.