NEW YORK — The price of oil fell for the ninth straight day Wednesday as global supplies continue to flow, despite unrest in the world’s most important oil-producing region.
That could mean lower gasoline prices for US drivers in the weeks ahead.
The insurgency in Iraq is far from resolved, but it hasn’t halted oil exports. The fighting now seems unlikely to spread to Iraq’s oil fields. And Libya’s crude exports appear poised to surge after an agreement between the government and local militias cleared the way for export terminals to open. Plus US production continues to soar.
At the same time, refineries have already made much of the gasoline needed for summer, so crude demand will begin to ebb over the next couple of months. The US oil supply on July 4 was 382.6 million barrels, up 2.3 percent from a year earlier.
‘‘We in the US are sitting on a ton of crude oil,’’ said analyst Stephen Schork of Schork Group.
US benchmark crude fell $1.11 to close at $102.29. That’s 5 percent below the 10-month high of $107.26 on June 20 at the height of concerns over Iraq.