Oil prices rose 1 percent on Thursday, pausing a five-day losing streak, on signs of steady demand in the US, the world’s biggest oil user, though uncertainty about the macroeconomic impacts of US tariffs limited gains.
Brent crude futures rose 62 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $67.51 a barrel by 0342 GMT while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $65.03 a barrel, up 68 cents, or 1.1 percent.
Both benchmarks slid about 1 percent to their lowest in eight weeks on Wednesday after US President Donald Trump’s remarks about progress in talks with Moscow.
Trump could meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as next week, a White House official said on Wednesday, though the US continued preparations to impose secondary sanctions, including potentially on China, to pressure Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.
Russia is the world’s second-biggest producer of crude after the US.
Still, oil markets were supported from a bigger-than-expected draw in US crude inventories last week.
The Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday that US crude oil stockpiles fell by 3 million barrels to 423.7 million barrels in the week ended August 1, exceeding analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 591,000-barrel draw.
Inventories fell as US crude exports climbed and refinery runs climbed, with utilization on the Gulf Coast, the country’s biggest refining region, and the West Coast climbing to their highest since 2023.
