Oil futures held steady on Thursday as a drop in crude exports from OPEC’s de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, and a draw in U.S. oil inventories supported prices, while a strengthening dollar kept futures in check. Brent crude futures were higher at $71.73 a barrel by 1:20 p.m. EDT (1720 GMT), up 11 cents from their last close and near Wednesday’s five-month high of $72.27. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 10 cents at $63.66 a barrel. Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports fell by 277,000 barrels to just under 7 million bpd in February from the month before, according to data from the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI). U.S. crude, gasoline and distillate inventories fell dropped week, […]