Brent crude futures gained 30 cents, or 0.5%, to $63.01 a barrel

Oil prices held largely steady on Thursday after declining almost 4% in the previous session as investors weighed concerns about global oversupply with looming U.S. sanctions against Russia’s Lukoil.

Brent crude futures gained 30 cents, or 0.5%, to $63.01 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 20 cents, or 0.3%, to $58.69 a barrel, after a decline of 4.2% on Wednesday.

There should be considerable support to oil prices around $60/bbl, especially given there could be short-term disruption to Russian export flows once stricter sanctions kick in, said Suvro Sarkar, DBS Bank’s energy sector team lead.

The U.S. has hit Lukoil with sanctions which prohibit transactions with the Russian company after November 21.

Price gains were held back as a report from the Energy Information Administration showed a larger-than-expected increase in U.S. crude stocks, while gasoline and distillate inventories declined less than expected last week.

Crude inventories rose by 6.4 million barrels to 427.6 million barrels in the week ended November 7, the EIA said.

The American Petroleum Institute said on Wednesday that U.S. crude stockpiles rose by 1.3 million barrels in the week ended November 7, according to market sources.

Prices dropped more than $2 a barrel on Wednesday after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said global oil supplies would slightly exceed demand in 2026, a further shift from the group’s earlier projections of a deficit.

Recent price weakness seems to be driven by OPEC’s revision of supply-demand balance in 2026 in its monthly report, which confirms the group is now acknowledging the possibility of a supply glut in 2026, in contrast to its more bullish stance all along, DBS’s Sarkar said.

OPEC said it expected the supply surplus next year because of wider production hikes by OPEC+, a group of producers that includes OPEC members and allies like Russia.

The International Energy Agency raised its global oil supply growth forecasts for this year and next in its monthly oil market report on Thursday, signalling a bigger surplus in 2026.