Oil prices steadied on Thursday, supported by healthy demand, after falling the previous day on the back of record U.S. crude production and rising inventories. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $64.46 per barrel at 0506 GMT, up 12 cents, or 0.2 percent, from their previous close. That slight rise came after a more-than-2 percent fall the previous day.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $61.26 a barrel, up 11 cents, or 0.2 percent. WTI also fell by more than 2 percent the previous session. The slight recovery on Thursday came amid a U.S. crude inventory build that was not as big as expected during the current seasonal demand lull at the end of winter, when many oil refineries shut down for maintenance. “Oil prices bounced back immediately after the release of the weekly oil inventories data from the Energy Information Administration where the headline figure was better than expected,” said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at futures brokerage Forex.com.