Oil prices were steady on Friday amid ongoing escalations in the Middle East region, inflicting doubts about potential disruption in crude flows. 

As of 10.18 a.m, India time, Brent crude futures marginally inched down by 0.1 percent to $77.54 per barrel. 

Similarly, West Texas Intermediate crude futures also edged down by 0.8 percent to $73.65 a barrel. 

Both benchmarks were headed for weekly gains of about 8 percent, Reuters reported. 

Exxon Mobil Hints Fall in Quarterly Earnings

Meanwhile, energy giant Exxon Mobil, in a regulatory filing said that its earnings for the third quarter of this year will be affected due to low crude prices. 

According to a Reuters report, the company reduced its third-quarter upstream earnings by $600 million to $1 billion. 

Oil prices fell by 17 percent in the third quarter, the largest quarterly decline in a year, on worries about the global oil demand outlook. 

In recent months, global fuel markets have been largely affected due to an economic slowdown in China and ongoing geopolitical tensions. 

In the previous quarter, Exxon had posted upstream earnings of $7.07 billion. 

Libya Opens Oil Fields

In another significant development, Libya's eastern-based government and Tripoli-based National Oil Corp announced that all the oil fields in the country started operations after a dispute over leadership of the central bank was resolved.

"We have recently received a formal security assessment concerning Sharara, El Feel and Essider, which confirms that NOC can resume the Operations and Exporting Operations to its customers," NOC said in a statement.