a worker at an oil processing facility of saudi aramco a saudi arabian stateowned oil and gas company at the abqaiq oil field oil prices rose on thursday rebounding from early losses after us government data showed a much bigger drop than expected in crude and gasoline inventories still brent prices remained about 3 a barrel below mondays close as traders remained worried that global crude supplies might swell following the collapse that day of negotiations between the organization of the petroleum exporting countries and allies including russia a group known as opec brent crude oil futures gained 094 to settle at 7412 per barrel and us west texas intermediate futures rose 102 to settle at 7294 per barrel early in the session both contracts fell to their lowest in about three weeks us crude inventories fell by 69 million barrels last week to 4455 million barrels energy information administration data showed analysts had expected a 4 millionbarrel drop gasoline stocks fell by 61 million barrels in the week to 2355 million barrels the eia said analysts had forecast a 22 millionbarrel drop​ the report is bullish theres no doubt said tony headrick energy market analyst at chs hedging we did see a very large increase in total gasoline supplied which would have led up to the friday before the fourth of july weekend futures have fallen recently because of a breakdown in discussions between major oil producers saudi arabia and the united arab emirates disagreement between the two gulf opec allies was publicly exposed last week with riyadh and abu dhabi at odds over a proposed deal that would have brought more oil to the market traders fear members of the opec group could be tempted to abandon output limits that they have followed during the pandemic the group is still holding back almost 6 million barrels per day bpd of output and had been expected to reduce those cuts this year russia was trying to mediate to help to strike a deal to raise output opec sources said on wednesday concerns about the pandemic also weighed on prices a resurgent coronavirus forced japan to declare a state of emergency in tokyo that will run throughout the olympic games south korea reported its highest daily tally of covid19 cases the brent sixmonth spread remains in backwardation with the frontmonth price higher than later months this suggests that no immediate flooding of the market is anticipated pvm analysts said in a note