Oil sagged to below $100 a barrel Monday for the first time since early July as traders waited for the delayed release of U.S. supply figures that are expected to show another rise in crude stockpiles.
By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude was down 85 cents a barrel to $99.96 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 14 cents Friday, lifted by an improvement in China's quarterly economic growth.
Data on U.S. crude and fuel stockpiles had been postponed last week due to the U.S. government shutdown.
The Energy Information Administration will release data for the week ended Oct. 11 on Monday. The supply report for last week will be released Wednesday.
Expectations for a supply build were bolstered last week by a report from the industry-funded American Petroleum, which said that U.S. stocks of crude oil rose by 5.9 million barrels in the week ending Oct. 11, more than twice the build expected by analysts.