2018.08.0215:56:00UTC+00Crude Oil Rebounds To Settle Higher

Crude oil prices moved higher on Thursday, after suffering losses in the past two sessions amid concerns over excess supply in the market. Oil's rebound today was due largely to reports that crude stockpiles declined at Cushing, Okla.

Concerns about a likely drop in demand for crude amid escalating U.S.-China trade war did weigh on crude earlier in the day, but a report from Genscape said there was a drawdown in crude stocks at Cushing. The report said stocks declined 3.6% to about 24.6 million barrels on July 31.

Crude oil futures for September settled at $68.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, gaining $1.30 or 1.9% for the session.

On Wednesday, crude oil futures ended down $1.10, or 1.6%, at $67.66 a barrel, after having lost almost 2% a session earlier.

Crude oil's recent slide was due to possible excess supply in the market after data showed an unexpected jump in U.S. crude stockpiles. According to a report released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. crude oil inventories rose by 3.8 barrels last week.

Earlier, on Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute had released a report that showed U.S. crude stockpiles to have risen by 5.59 million barrels last week, compared to analyst expectations for a 2.8 million-barrel drawdown.

Although reports about disruptions in Libya and Venezuela suggested a drop in supply, news that Saudi Arabia and Russia have spoken about increasing crude production, helped limit crude oil's slide.

Last week, a report from Baker Hughes said, three rigs were added in the U.S, taking the total rig count in the country to 861.