Shrugging off early weakness and a mid-session setback, crude oil futures ended modestly higher on Thursday despite persisting concerns about growth and outlook for energy demand.
West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.42 or about 0.4% at $106.13 a barrel, after scaling a low of $102.66 and a high of $107.37 in the session.
Brent crude futures were up $0.23 or 0.2% at $107.74 a barrel a little while ago.
Rising inflation has raised concerns that the Federal Reserve will tighten is policy and resort to a series of sharp interest rate hikes this year.
Signs of prolonged Covid-19 lockdowns in China also weighed on oil prices earlier in the session. A stronger dollar hurt as well.
The European Union's proposal to ban Russian oil, which is yet to take effect, is likely to significantly tighten global supplies.
The EU is still working out details of the Russian embargo, as Hungary is opposing the ban because it feels it would be too disruptive to its economy.
