Meanwhile, Trump sends more missiles to guard Middle East assets: File Image/Pixabay.

Oil traders on Friday, heartened by Europe’s agreement to tap diesel reserves and seemingly unimpressed by increasingly empty threats of violence from Iran, caused crude prices to dip minimally; similarly, gains for the week were minuscule for one key benchmark.

After the European Union countries agreed to a French proposal to release additional diesel stockpiles in the wake of a request from U.S. president Donald Trump, Brent settled down 6 cents at $102.25 per barrel; West Texas Intermediate settled down $1.76 at $91.11 per barrel.

For the week, Brent gained 0.1 percent and WTI was 1.6 percent lower.

The diesel deal was for Europe to release 50 million barrels and for International Energy Agency members to release the same amount over a 20-day period, according to sources.

Michael Lynch, distinguished fellow at the Energy Policy Research Foundation, said the diesel release might mean less exports of diesel from the U.S., which could lower prices by 25-50 cents per gallon after a few weeks.

Ole ⁠Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said, "This highlights that the main stress in the energy market is no longer crude availability, with Middle East flows recovering, but rather refined product supply, constrained by reduced refinery capacity and output across the Middle East and Russia."

All but ignored on Friday was more sabre-rattling from Iran, this time in the form of cleric Hossein Hosseini Karnami, who warned  that "If our airport is to be closed, no airport in the region will remain open, and if our oil is not exported, no oil tanker will pass through the Persian Gulf."

He also said "resistance and the soldiers of this land" would determine whether the Strait of Hormuz remained open or closed.

For his part, Trump on Friday told attendees at an Alabama midterm rally that Iran was experiencing 310 percent inflation and that after the war ends (which he reiterated would likely come right after the midterm elections later this month) oil prices could ultimately fall below the levels seen during his first term.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials and a Persian Gulf regional source told Axios on Friday that Washington had deployed two additional Patriot missile batteries to protect energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and Qatar from possible Iranian strikes; they will guard a key oil-producing facility in the kingdom and a natural gas site in Qatar.