Oil rose towards $102 (€65) a barrel today, snapping three straight days of losses ahead of a US inventory report expected to show fuel stocks fell in the world's top consumer.
US crude was up 79 cents to $101.77 (€64.98) a barrel late morning, having risen as high as $102.05 (€65.16) earlier, while London Brent crude rose 78 cents to $100.95 (€64.46), off an earlier high of $101.34 (€64.71).
Oil also got a boost from rising equity markets. World stocks jumped to a one-month peak today as moves by banks to come clean on their financial woes relieved investors.
Some took strong demand for a $4 billion (€2.55 billion) capital raising from Lehman Brothers as a sign that the worst of the eight-month-old credit crisis might be over.
Oil had fallen more than $4 (€2.55) on Monday, as workers in Iraq ramped up flows at an oil pipeline that had been damaged in a bomb attack, while funds locked in commodity profits at the end of the first quarter.
But the stock markets' rise led to further gains in the dollar that could weaken oil prices, which hit a record high of $111.80 (€71.39) last month as investors poured cash into dollar denominated commodities.
Attention will switch later on Wednesday to the latest weekly US inventory report, which is expected to show a mix of figures.
Gasoline inventories in top consumer the United States were forecast to have fallen for a third week in a row, down by 2.0 million barrels last week, an expanded Reuters poll showed.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel, are expected to drop by 1.6 million barrels, their eighth consecutive drop, while crude stocks were predicted to have risen 2.6 million barrels.