Oil prices increase after falling to the lowest level in nearly 6 months

Oil prices held largely steady on Thursday as the market balanced tight supplies with demand concerns, after an increase in US crude and gasoline inventories pushed prices to multi-month lows in the previous session.

By 0925 GMT, Brent crude futures rose 36 cents, or 0.37 percent, to $97.14 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 43 cents, or 0.47 percent, to $91.09 a barrel.

On Wednesday, both fell to its lowest level since before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

This followed an unexpected increase in US crude and gasoline stocks, which are an indicator of demand, unexpectedly increased as demand slowed, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

The market was further cooled after a decision by the OPEC + bloc on Wednesday to increase oil production by 100,000 barrels per day in September.

Although this increase represents only 0.1 percent 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.

But prices received support due to the limited spare production capacity of the countries of the OPEC + bloc.