California produces 311,000 barrels of crude oil every day, around 2.4 percent of all US production, making it the seventh largest producing state in the union. Oil prices edged off in early Asian trading on Wednesday on continued bearish fundamentals, following gains in the previous session amid an escalating conflict in the Middle East. The March Brent crude futures , which expires today, fell 37 cents to $82.50 a barrel by 0146 GMT. But ANZ analysts said in a note that "a strong military response from the U.S." to the drone attack "could still trigger a strong reaction from the market." It appeared to be the most serious peace initiative since the war's first and only brief ceasefire which fell apart in November.

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Persons: Fred Holmes, Brent, Tony Sycamore, Biden, Sycamore Organizations: . West Texas, IG, ANZ, U.S . Pentagon, U.S, China Evergrande Group, PMI Locations: Taft, Kern County , California, California, U.S, Jordan, Syria, East, Iran, Israel, Gaza, Red