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Brent crude futures were up 10 cents, or 0.1%, at $82.00 a
barrel by 0850 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI)
futures were up 7 cents, or 0.1%, at $77.64. Both benchmarks
fell more than 1% on Wednesday.
Minutes released on Wednesday from the Federal Reserve's most
recent policy meeting showed the U.S. central bank discussed the
potential to raise interest rates in the face of continued
stubborn inflation.
"Various participants mentioned a willingness to tighten policy
further should risks to inflation materialize in a way that such
an action became appropriate," the Fed minutes said.
Higher interest rates boost borrowing costs, crunching funds
that could boost economic growth and oil demand in the world's
largest oil consuming nation.
Also weighing on the market, U.S. crude stocks rose by 1.8
million barrels last week, according to the Energy Information
Administration, compared with an estimated draw of 2.5 million
barrels.
Globally, physical crude markets have been pressured by soft
refinery demand and ample supply.
"Recent market softness has come on the back of weaker data,
including rising oil inventories, tepid demand and refinery
margin weakness and the increasing risk of run cuts," Citi
analysts said in a note on Thursday.
Russia said it exceeded its OPEC+ production quota in April for
"technical reasons" and will soon present to the Organization of
the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Secretariat its plan to
compensate for the error, the Russian Energy Ministry said late
on Wednesday.
OPEC+, which groups together OPEC and allies led by Russia, will
meet on June 1 to decide on production cut levels.
"June's meeting is seen as difficult in being able to tighten
the market further and there is a growing consensus that the
best the cartel will come up with is a rollover of current
voluntary cuts," said John Evans of oil broker PVM.
"This may show results in the autumn, but for now it will do
little to assuage a market lacking in confidence."
(Reporting by Paul Carsten in LondonAdditional reporting by
Arathy Somasekhar and Sudarshan VaradhanEditing by David
Goodman)
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