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NEW YORK, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices stabilized Thursday after sharp increases the previous day.
Oil prices spiked Wednesday as traders believed that the maintenance season of U.S. refiners is winding down and that refineries started to boost operating rates.
U.S. refiners typically slow production during September and October to perform maintenance during a low fuel demand period.
U.S. crude supplies last week gained 3.4 million barrels to 480 million barrels, 100.2 million barrels more than one year before, according to the weekly report of the Energy Information Administration (EIA) Wednesday.
Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the U.S. contract lost 0.78 million barrels to 53.33 million barrels.
U.S. crude production added 16,000 to 9.112 million barrels a day last week, according to EIA's report.
The West Texas Intermediate for December delivery moved up 12 cents to settle at 46.06 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for December delivery decreased 25 cents to close at 48.8 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
