Oil prices rebound after prior session's sell-off

NEW YORK, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices rose on Wednesday, recouping some of the massive losses they had suffered in the previous session.

The West Texas Intermediate for August delivery added 46 cents, or 0.5 percent, to settle at 96.30 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for September delivery increased 8 cents, or nearly 0.1 percent, to close at 99.57 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

On Tuesday, oil prices suffered a major setback with both the U.S. and the global crude benchmarks tumbling more than 7 percent to end at their lowest prices since April, as recession fears resurfaced.

In its closely-watched monthly report released Wednesday, the International Energy Agency trimmed its oil demand forecast for 2022 and 2023.

It also warned of great uncertainty regarding the outlook for oil markets.

"A worsening macroeconomic outlook and fears of recession are weighing on market sentiment, while there are ongoing risks on the supply side," said the Paris-based energy watchdog.

Traders also parsed newly released weekly U.S. petroleum status report, which showed a marked build in the nation's fuel stockpiles.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Wednesday that U.S. crude oil inventories increased by 3.3 million barrels during the week ending July 8.

According to the EIA, total motor gasoline inventories rose by 5.8 million barrels last week, while distillate fuel inventories increased by 2.7 million barrels.