Oil prices rose more than 2% on Wednesday, offsetting some of the large losses in the previous session.
Brent crude futures rose $1.90, or 2.7%, to $71.13 a barrel at 0504 GMT, after falling 3.9% on Tuesday.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose $1.71, or 2.6%, to $67.89 a barrel, after falling 5.4% on Tuesday.
Major manufacturers are debating how to respond to the threat of a blow to fuel demand for the Omicron variant.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will meet on Thursday with its allies, including Russia after meeting at 1300 GMT on Wednesday.
While some analysts expect OPEC+ to pause its plans to increase supply by 400,000 barrels per day in January in light of the potential blow to demand from travel restrictions to curb the spread of the Omicron variant, some OPEC+ ministers said no change was needed.
By the way, as the US and other countries have agreed to release their emergency stocks to control the price increase, there is a possibility that this will happen, given the impact of the novel coronavirus variant on global demand and especially the aviation industry.
Even if OPEC+ agrees to continue its planned increase in supply in January, producers may hesitate to comply.
According to a survey, OPEC pumped 27.74 million barrels in November, up 220,000 barrels from the previous month, but that’s below the 254,000-bp increase allowed for OPEC members under the OPEC+ deal.
According to market sources, API data shows that the decline in US crude oil inventories was smaller than expected. Data from the American Petroleum Institute industry group showed US crude inventories dropped by 747,000 barrels in the week ended November 26. It had been expected crude oil inventories to drop by about 1.2 million barrels.
The market awaits EIA inventory data to be released today.