Oil prices held largely on Thursday, as the market balanced tight supplies with demand concerns, following an increase in US crude and gasoline stocks pushed prices to a multi-month low in the previous session.
Brent crude futures rose 36 cents, or 0.37%, to $97.14 a barrel, by 0925 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 43 cents, or 0.47%, to $91.09 a barrel.
On Wednesday, both fell to its lowest level since before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
This came in the wake of an unexpected increase in US crude stocks, and gasoline stocks – an indicator of demand – unexpectedly increased as demand slowed, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
The market coolness increased following a decision to conglomerate OPEC+ Yesterday, Wednesday, oil production increased by 100,000 barrels per day in September.
Although this increase represents only 0.1% of global demand, the demand outlook remains pessimistic due to increasing fears of an economic slowdown in the United States and Europe, debt troubles in emerging economies, and the strict anti-Covid-19 policy in China, the largest global oil importer. .
However, prices received support due to the limited spare production capacity of the countries of the OPEC + bloc.
