Oil prices rose about 2% yesterday, recovering after the biggest losses in years as US President Donald Trump imposed more tariffs on Chinese imports, leading to intensified trade confrontations between the world's two largest economies and consumers of crude. Brent crude futures fell more than 7% yesterday, the biggest drop in more than three years. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell nearly 8% to its worst daily performance in more than four years.
The plunge put an end to a fragile rally driven by a steady decline in US stocks, although global demand seems to be shaken by the trade dispute.
Brent crude rose $ 1.21 or 2% to $ 61.71 a barrel, while US crude futures rose 87 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $ 54.82 a barrel.
Meanwhile, data from the Russian Energy Ministry showed yesterday that the country's oil production reached 11.148 million barrels per day in July, compared with 11.155 million bpd in June.
Gas production reached 54.66 billion cubic meters last month, or 1.76 billion cubic meters per day, compared with 54.38 billion cubic meters in June.
Russian crude oil exports via pipelines reached 4.609 million bpd in July, the data showed.