Oil prices slip as tankers continue to ply Middle East conflict zones

BEIJING, July 30 : Oil prices gave up some of their gains on Thursday as oil tankers continued to make their way out of the Middle East even as tensions there escalated, with the U.S.-Iran war spreading beyond its main fronts.Brent futures fell 79 cents, or 0.9 per cent, to $87.30 a barrel as of 0015 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slipped 76 cents, or 0.9 per cent, to $83.70 a barrel. Brent settled up 7.91 per cent in the previous session and WTI up 6.56 per cent in one of the sharpest spikes of the Iran war, reversing a 5 per cent plunge on Tuesday after a pause in hostilities in the U.S.-Iran war.Thirty-nine commodity ships passed through the Bab el-Mandeb strait into the Red Sea on Tuesday, the highest number since July 19, with only a few transiting through the Strait of