Oil prices crept higher today but remained short of the eight-month high touched earlier in the week amid fading concerns over potential supply disruptions.
Benchmark US light crude rose 18 cents to $28.13 a barrel, recouping most of the 20 cent loss in New York yesterday.
Prices have fallen back after US government data showed an expansion in the nation's year-on-year gasoline supply cushion and a slight easing in demand.
Oil consumption normally rises from end-May to September as Americans go on holiday.
Other bearish indicators this week came on the supply side. Iraq has increasing crude exports after a month-long self-imposed stoppage and has accepted a new phase of the UN oil-for-food programme, relieving concerns of possible disruptions to oil flows.
Hints that Baghdad may be willing to allow weapons inspectors back to Iraq after a three-year break have also calmed traders' fears of a US attack on Iraqi targets.
Traders also expect Russia to scrap June supply restraints it had agreed to with the OPEC producers' cartel and other non-aligned producing nations. Russia, the second-largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, agreed to cut crude exports by 150,000 barrels per day from January.