Crude oil fell below $103 a barrel on Wednesday, extending its retreat after two sessions of gains as the US administration sought to calm concerns about disruptions to Saudi Arabia’s oil supplies. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the damaged East-West pipeline should resume operations within days and described the outage as temporary, but independent analysts said repairs could take several weeks. Saudi Arabia has increased crude exports through the Strait of Hormuz with US military assistance while the pipeline remains offline. US government data showed crude inventories fell by 640,000 barrels to 423.4 million barrels in the week ended September 11, although the decline was smaller than analysts had expected. Stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, hub also fell, contrasting with the American Petroleum Institute’s earlier estimate of a 7.1 million-barrel increase.