The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for May delivery lost 20 cents, or 0.2 percent, to settle at 96.03 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for June delivery decreased 49 cents, or 0.5 percent, to close at 100.58 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
On Wednesday, the WTI and Brent tumbled 5.6 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively.
The above market reactions came as the oil consuming countries of the International Energy Agency agreed Wednesday on the coordinated release of 60 million barrels of oil from emergency reserves on top of a 180 million-barrel release announced by the United States last week to ease fuel prices.
Additional selling pressure was generated by the unexpected 2.4 million barrel rise in U.S. crude oil stocks last week, as reported Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
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