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Brent crude futures rose 66 cents, or 0.6%, to $107.91 a barrel
by 0948 GMT.
The front-month WTI crude futures contract, which expires on
Wednesday, rose 78 cents, or 0.8%, to $103.34 while the
second-month contract gained 69 cents to $102.74.
The two main benchmarks had fallen by 5.2% in volatile trading
on Tuesday after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its
forecast global growth forecast by nearly a full percentage
point, citing the economic impact of Russia's war in Ukraine and
warning that inflation had become a "clear and present danger"
for many countries.
"Weakening growth and mounting inflationary pressure can only
mean one thing: the spectre of stagflation is hanging over the
global economy," said PVM analyst Stephen Brennock.
Global oil prices have been pulled higher by a tighter supply
outlook after sanctions against Russia - the world's
second-largest oil exporter and a key European supplier - over
its invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a "special
operation".
However, a softer global economic outlook and continuing
COVID-19 lockdowns in China have hurt demand in the world's top
crude importer and are weighing on prices.
On the supply side, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) and its allies, known collectively as OPEC+,
produced 1.45 million barrels per day (bpd) below its production
target in March as Russian output began to decline after
sanctions imposed by the West, a report from the producer
alliance showed.
Various outages added to concerns about supply. OPEC member
Libya has been forced to shut down a number of oil facilities
including the 300,000 bpd Sharara oilfield because of a wave of
protests.
Libya's National Oil Corporation declared force majeure at the
Brega oil port on Tuesday, saying it was unable to fulfil its
commitments to the oil market.
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium's (CPC) Black Sea terminal could
return to full capacity as early as Wednesday, Kazakh Energy
Minister Bolat Akchulakov said. The CPC pipeline and terminal,
which ship about 80% of Kazakh crude exports, have been working
at half usual capacity after a storm damaged two of its three
mooring points last month.
In the United States, crude stocks fell by 4.5 million barrels
last week, according to market sources citing American Petroleum
Institute figures on Tuesday. [EIA/S]
The Energy Information Administration (EIA), the statistical arm
of the U.S. Department of Energy, will release its weekly data
at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar; Additional reporting by Florence
Tan in Singapore; Editing by David Goodman)
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