Oil prices rose on Thursday, stopping recent price losses for the time being.
Previously, they had declined for three trading days in a row.
A barrel (159 liters) of the North Sea Brent cost $ 70.60 that morning.
That was 22 cents more than the day before.
The price of a barrel of the American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 24 cents to $ 68.39.
Market observers pointed to recent developments in crude oil and gasoline inventories in the United States. In the past week, American oil reserves rose surprisingly, by 3.6 million barrels to 439.2 million barrels. However, a sharp decline in gasoline reserves had a greater impact on the oil market and supported oil prices. As the American government also announced on Thursday, gasoline stocks had fallen by 5.3 million barrels to 228.9 million barrels in the past week.
With the current rise, a three-day decline in oil prices could initially be ended. From Monday through Wednesday, the price of US oil had fallen by about seven percent. Concerns about restrictions on mobility in leading industrialized countries due to the spread of the delta variant of the corona virus had put the prices under selling pressure.