Oil prices steady on falling U.S. crude stocks, Iran sanctions

Oil prices held steady on Wednesday, supported by a report of rising U.S. crude inventories as well as the introduction of sanctions against Iran.

Front-month U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $69.28 per barrel at 0408 GMT, up 11 cents from their last settlement.

Brent crude oil futures were at $74.61 per barrel, down 4 cents from their last close.

Both futures contracts have risen during the previous two sessions.

"Crude oil prices rose as the reality of U.S. sanctions on Iran weighed on sentiment. News from key buyers suggests the market is already adjusting to the new regime," ANZ bank said in a note on Wednesday.

The U.S. government introduced a raft of new sanctions against Iran on Tuesday, targeting Iran's purchases of U.S. dollars - in which oil is traded - metals trading, coal, industrial software and its auto sector.

From November, Washington will also target Iran's petroleum sector.

Iran is the third-largest producer among the members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). It shipped out almost 3 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude in September, equivalent to around 3 percent of global demand.

Beyond the sanctions, the oil market was focusing on the U.S. market, where the American Petroleum Institute said on Tuesday that crude inventories fell by 6 million barrels in the week to Aug. 3 to 407.2 million.

Official U.S. fuel storage data is due to be released later on Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

In terms of production, the EIA on Tuesday slightly cut its 2018 expectation for average 2018 U.S. crude output to 10.69 million bpd, down from its previous estimate of 10.79 million bpd.

On the demand side, China's July crude oil imports recovered slightly in July after falling for the previous two months, but were still among the lowest this year due to a drop-off in demand from the country's smaller independent, or "teapot," refineries.

Shipments into the world's biggest importer of crude came in at 36.02 million tones last month, or 8.48 million bpd, up from 8.18 million bpd a year ago, and just up on June's 8.36 million bpd, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

However, July imports were still the third-lowest so far this year.

(Reporting by Henning Gloystein; editing by Richard Pullin and Christian Schmollinger)