Thursday saw oil prices rise for the third consecutive day as government data revealed a sharp decline in US crude stockpiles, which helped the commodity recover from multi-month lows reached this week.
While U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude gained 29 cents, or 0.4%, to $75.52, Brent crude futures increased by 23 cents, or 0.3%, to $78.56 per barrel.
Worries about a U.S. recession and a selloff in global equities caused Brent to fall to its lowest level since early January on Monday, and WTI to drop to its lowest level since February.
According to official data, U.S. crude stocks decreased last week for the sixth week in a row, falling by 3.7 million barrels to 429.3 million barrels. This was in contrast to analyst estimates, as indicated by a Reuters poll, for a 700,000-barrel decline.
As U.S. Energy Information Administration data revealed that production increased by 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) to a record 13.4 million bpd in the week ending August 2, investors also continued to discuss the health of supply.
