The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for January delivery added 1.51 U.S. dollars, or 2.1 percent, to settle at 72.38 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for February delivery increased 1.14 dollars, or 1.5 percent, to close at 75.02 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
Some positive signals offset the demand concerns generated by the Omicron variant.
"The financial market environment is generally somewhat less risk-averse lent buoyancy on the one hand: with its accelerated exit from its ultra-expansionary monetary policy, the Fed is apparently giving the impression that everything is under control," Barbara Lambrecht, energy analyst at Commerzbank Research, said Thursday in a note.
"And on the other hand, the oil market-specific data were positive," she added, citing a hefty decline in U.S. inventory stockpiles.
U.S. crude oil inventories decreased by 4.6 million barrels during the week ending Dec. 10, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Wednesday. On average, analysts polled by S&P Global Platts had expected a decrease of 1.7 million barrels.
According to the EIA, total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 0.7 million barrels last week, while distillate fuel inventories decreased by 2.9 million barrels.
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