Oil prices recovered some of the losses this Thursday morning as President Trump said India vowed to halt purchases of Russian barrels soon, ING's commodity experts Ewa Manthey and Warren Patterson note.

Decline in distillate inventories provides mixed signals

"India's foreign ministry said it will diversify its sourcing while ensuring stable energy prices and secure supplies. Meanwhile, a bearish report from the American Petroleum Institute (API) restricted any major upside for Oil prices."

"Numbers overnight from the API show that crude Oil inventories increased for a third straight week by 7.36m barrels over the last week, in contrast to the average market expectation of a draw of 136k barrels. Looking at refined products, gasoline inventories rose by 3m barrels, while distillate stocks declined by 4.8m barrels."

"The decline in distillate inventories provided mixed signals on energy consumption in the country. The more widely followed EIA weekly inventory report will be released later today."