NEW YORK, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices surged on Wednesday, recouping some of the massive losses they had suffered earlier this week.
The West Texas Intermediate for June delivery added 5.95 U.S. dollars, or 6 percent, to settle at 105.71 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for July delivery increased 5.05 dollars, or 4.9 percent, to close at 107.51 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
The rally followed a two-day losing streak on the oil market, which saw the U.S. crude standard and Brent both shed about 9 percent during the previous two sessions.
Concerns over tight supplies persisted as the European Union (EU) worked on gaining support for an oil embargo against Russia.
In its sixth sanction package aimed against Moscow, the EU plans to phase out Russian crude oil within six months and refined products by the end of the year.
Hungary and other Eastern European countries, whose economies are largely reliant on Russian oil, are not ready yet to accept the sanction package in its current form.
Traders also parsed data on U.S. fuel stockpiles.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Wednesday that the nation's crude inventories increased by 8.5 million barrels during the week ending May 6.
According to the EIA, total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 3.6 million barrels last week, while distillate fuel inventories decreased by 0.9 million barrels. ■