Oil prices climbed on Wednesday, paring losses from the previous session, as investors jumped into more risky assets such as commodities amid gains in broader equity markets and on signs of renewed demand from top oil importer China.
Brent crude futures for December settlement rose 46 cents, or 0.5%, to $90.49 a barrel by 04:55 GMT.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was at $83.69 a barrel, up 87 cents, or 1.1%. WTI's front-month contract expires on Thursday and the more active December contract was at $82.89, up 82 cents, or 1.0%.
In the previous session, Brent fell by 1.7% and WTI fell by 3.1% to their lowest in two weeks on reports of U.S. President Joe Biden's plans to release more barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).
Oil prices were also buoyed by better risk sentiment which was lifted by upbeat U.S. corporate earnings and rising equity markets.
Prices were also supported on signs of resurgent Chinese demand. Private mega refiner Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp (ZPC) won additional crude oil import quota for 2022 of 10 million tonnes and state-run ChemChina received a further quota of 4.28 million tonnes. That is equal to about 104 million barrels.
In December, the administration plans to sell 15 million barrels of oil from its reserves, the final tranche of the 180 million barrels release announced earlier this year, a senior U.S. official said.
U.S. crude oil stockpiles fell by about 1.3 million barrels for the week ended Oct. 14, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday. Gasoline inventories declined by about 2.2 million barrels while distillate stockpiles dropped by 1.1 million, the sources said.
