Oil futures rose on Thursday from a 3-week low touched in the previous session after major consuming countries said they would release large amounts of oil reserves, while fears of a tight supply still dominate market expectations.
Brent contracts rose 1.5 percent to $ 102.55 a barrel, and US crude contracts rose 1.3 percent to $ 97.49 a barrel.
The two benchmarks lost more than 5% in the previous session, and recorded their lowest level at the close since last March 16.
The International Energy Agency said its member states would release 120 million barrels of strategic reserves to try to calm sharp price increases.
According to two sources familiar with the matter, the figure will include 60 million barrels of strategic reserves in the United States.
This pledge is part of a previous US announcement of the withdrawal of 180 million barrels from the reserves.
International agreements to withdraw from the reserve
And the other 30 countries in the agency agreed last Friday, during an extraordinary meeting, to withdraw more of their reserves, but without disclosing the amount.
The member states of the International Energy Agency pledged early last March to withdraw about 62.7 million barrels from their reserves, stressing that they have the possibility of withdrawing more. In total, these countries own 1.5 billion barrels of oil reserves.
On Thursday, Japan's Kyodo news agency said that Japan will withdraw 15 million barrels of state and private oil reserves, as part of the second round of a coordinated withdrawal process led by the International Energy Agency.
Kyodo added that the move would mark Japan's largest ever contribution to the process led by the International Energy Agency.
But analysts and traders said that even with the release of oil stocks, supplies remain tight.