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Brent crude futures rose 14 cents, or 0.1%, to $100.83 a barrel
by 0900 GMT. WTI crude futures climbed 21 cents, or 0.2%, to
$98.74 a barrel.
Prices swung between about $2 in losses and gains of nearly $1
in volatile trade.
"Recession fears continue to grow and that obviously does raise
some concerns for the demand outlook," said Warren Patterson,
ING's head of commodity research.
"However, supportive fundamentals should mean that further
downside is relatively limited."
He added that it's hard to be overly bearish on oil prices as
the Brent monthly spreads remain in wide backwardation,
referring to prompt-month prices trading higher than those for
future months.
"Recent Iranian nuclear talks don’t appear to have achieved
much", Patterson added, after Washington tightened sanctions on
Iran on Wednesday, pressuring Tehran as it seeks to revive the
2015 Iran nuclear deal.
In recent weeks oil prices have slid, fanning fears of a sharp
economic slowdown and a hit to demand for commodities.
Brent and WTI closed on Wednesday at their lowest since April
11. The declines follow a dramatic fall on Tuesday when WTI slid
8% while Brent tumbled 9% - a $10.73 drop that was the third
biggest for the contract since it started trading in 1988.
"If the forecasted recession is not severe, the crude price
should remain in the $100/bbl range for the next 2-3 years,"
said Fereidun Fesharaki of consultancy FGE.
Traders are watching for possible oil supply disruptions at the
Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which has been told by a
Russian court to suspend activity for 30 days. Exports at CPC,
which handles about 1% of global oil supplies, were still
flowing as of Wednesday morning.
(Additional reporting by Florence Tan in Singapore and Stephanie
Kelly in New York; Editing by Kim Coghill and Jason Neely)
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