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New York - Oil prices rebounded a bit on Wednesday from nearly six-year lows as investors took a breather on the eve of a highly anticipated European Central Bank decision on stimulus.
Traders also were awaiting the weekly US oil inventories report, a gauge of demand in the world's largest crude-oil consumer. The report was postponed a day, to Thursday, because of a public holiday on Monday.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for March delivery jumped $1.31 to finish trade at $47.78 a barrel, putting in only a partial rebound from Tuesday's $2.30 loss.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for delivery March climbed $1.04 to settle at $49.03 a barrel. The February contract expired on Tuesday at $46.39, down $2.30 and not far from its lowest level since March 2009.
There are two import matters for the energy market on Thursday, the ECB decision and the US storage report, said Bob Yawger of Mizuho Securities.
Investors widely expect the ECB will announce a major asset-purchase program, or quantitative easing, after its monetary policy meeting Thursday, in a bid to revive growth in the ailing eurozone.
"If the ECB decides to launch it, this should lead to some kind of support, and in turn to some demand increase in the eurozone," Yawger said.
The analyst said the market was expecting the US Department of Energy's report to show crude-oil increased by 2.5 million barrels last week.
"But probably more interesting is the storage in Cushing, which has been up for six weeks in a row, and is seen up again," he added. Crude oil at the Cushing, Oklahoma storage facility serves as the price reference point for WTI. In the first full week of the year, Cushing supplies rose by 1.8 million barrels.
The steep slide in oil prices since June, cutting more than half their value, will cost the powerful oil-producing economies dearly this year, the International Monetary Fund warned Wednesday.
The members of the Gulf Cooperation Council could see about $300bn in losses, threatening to send many of them into budget deficits, the IMF said in a new report.
"Most oil exporters need oil prices to be considerably above the $57 (a barrel) projected for 2015 to cover government spending, which has increased in recent years in response to rising social pressures and infrastructure development goals," it said.
Iraqi Oil Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi on Wednesday predicted that world prices would not fall much further.
"Our estimate is that the prices have reached the bottom. It is very difficult to drop lower than this," Abdul Mahdi told a conference in Kuwait.
"We do not find any real justification for the big and persistent drop in oil prices," said the Iraqi minister, whose country is the second-largest Opec producer, after Saudi Arabia.
