Oil steadied near $73 a barrel on Wednesday ahead of U.S. inventory data expected to show another drop in U.S. crude and gasoline stocks. U.S. light, sweet crude for September delivery fell 14 cents at $72.91 a barrel by 1238 GMT. Prices eased for the third-straight session on Wednesday and are near Monday's $72.60 intra-day low, the weakest since July 20. ICE Brent crude was trading 40 cents lower at $73.40 a barrel after falling 50 cents on Tuesday. Prices have slumped from above $77 a barrel a week ago after BP said it would shut down only half of its 400,000 barrel per day Prudhoe Bay oilfield in Alaska and the United Nations brokered a truce to end a month-long war in the Middle East. "Oil prices have come down now that the previously supportive factors of Israel-Hizbollah and Prudhoe Bay are out of the picture," said Naohiro Niimura, head of research and sales at Mizuho Corporate Bank. Israeli forces began leaving parts of south Lebanon on Tuesday as the ceasefire held into a third day. The United Nations hopes to start deployment of a new U.N. force in Lebanon with some 3,500 troops within two weeks to monitor the fragile truce, provided France forms the backbone for the contingent [nL15490127]. But some analysts remained bullish in the longer term. "The geopolitical situation compared to last year has gotten worse not better. I don't see any quick fix for the geopolitical situation," said Angus McPhail, analyst with Alliance Trust. "The spectre of $80 a barrel is still very real." The focus will turn later on Wednesday to U.S. oil data, with weekly inventory statistics expected to show a 1.8 million-barrel decline in gasoline stocks due to strong demand in the last weeks of the summer driving season, which ends with the Labor Day holiday weekend in early September. Crude stocks were likely to have dropped by 1.6 million barrels, while gasoline fell by 1.8 million barrels, an expanded Reuters survey of 14 analysts found. [EIA/S] Attacks against foreign oil workers in Nigeria and Iran's stand-off with the West over its nuclear development are also lending support to prices, which are still up nearly 20 percent this year, aided by healthy investor buying.