By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Oil was up on Thursday morning in Asia, as concerns over tight global supplies outweighed fears over slower economic growth.

The price of $110.69 rose 1.45% by 12:58 PM ET (5:00 AM GMT) after having fallen by over $1 earlier in session. After a loss of over $2, the price rose 1.7% to $108.18. They were also up 0.5% at $107.60 per barrel in July 2022, after gaining 56 cents.

WTI and Brent benchmarks were both down 2.5% Wednesday.

Satoru Yoshida from Rakuten Securities, a commodity analyst at Rakuten Securities told Reuters that a Wall Street slump had weighed on sentiment and raised concerns about weakening fuel demand and consumption.

On Thursday, Asian shares plunged following a Wall Street selloff. This was due to rising inflation in China, China’s zero COVID policy and fears about an economic downturn.

Yoshida stated that oil markets remain bullish despite the European Union’s upcoming ban on Russian crude imports. This is likely to tighten global supply.

A new set of sanctions was proposed by the European Union against Russia earlier this month for its attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2018. This package would have banned all Russian oil imports within six months, however the plans are still being opposed by member states such as Hungary.

Wednesday’s announcement by the European Commission was a EUR210billion ($220.65billion) plan that Europe will use to eliminate its dependence on Russian fossil fuels.

Meanwhile, the weekly draw for May 13 was 3.3994 million barrels. Investing.com had forecast a build to 1.383 Million barrels. However, an 8.487-million barrel build was recorded during the week prior.

Released the day prior, it showed a draw at 2.445 millions barrels. Capacity utilization on the East Coast, and Gulf Coast were both above 95%. These refineries had their lowest running rates.