London — Oil prices steadied on Thursday after a sharp rise in US crude and petrol stockpiles, although evidence that oil cartel Opec and other big exporters were cutting production helped support sentiment. Brent crude was up five US cents at $56.85 a barrel by 9.25am GMT after settling up $1.22 in the previous session. US light crude was down 5c at $53.83 after climbing $1.07 on Wednesday. Both crude oil benchmarks are now near the top of recent price ranges. Brent has spent most of the last two months trading between $53.00 and $58.00 a barrel, at a premium of about $2.50 to the US crude futures contract. "We are still firmly within the ranges," said Tamas Varga, analyst at London brokerage PVM Oil Associates. "I think buyers will shy away if the market jumps another dollar." US crude oil inventories rose last week by an unexpected 6.5-million barrels to 494.76-million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. The build in crude stocks far exceeded analyst...
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