Crude oil prices climb back from lows

Crude oil prices edged higher on Wednesday as investors looked for bargains following the previous day’s plunge, but gains were capped as pandemic lockdowns in Europe and a build in U.S. crude stocks curbed risk appetite and raised oversupply fears, Reuters reports.

rent crude futures added US 27 cents, or 0.4 percent, at US$61.06 a barrel by 0108 GMT, after tumbling by 5.9 percent and hitting a low of US$60.50 the previous day.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures climbed 19 US cents, or 0.3 percent, at  US$57.95 a barrel, having lost 6.2 percent and touched a low of US$57.32 on Tuesday.

Both benchmarks touched their lowest levels since early February on Tuesday and have now fallen more than 14 percent from their recent highs earlier this month.

The front-month spread for both Brent and WTI slipped into contango, where front-month contracts are lower than the later months, a sign that demand for prompt crude is declining.