Global crude oil prices rose on Wednesday, paring overnight losses, with producers in the US Gulf of Mexico struggling to restart operations nine days after Hurricane Ida swept through. Brent crude oil futures rose 79 cents, to 72.48 dollars a barrel, after falling 0.7 per cent yesterday. US crude futures rose 88 cents to 68.62 dollars a barrel, after sliding 1.4 per cent on Tuesday following the Labor Day holiday.

About 79 per cent of US Gulf production remained offline on Tuesday, with 79 production platforms still unoccupied more than a week after Hurricane Ida made landfall. About 17.5 million barrels of oil has been lost to the market so far.

Oil prices fell on Tuesday in a widespread commodity sell-off as the U.S. dollar jumped on worries about rising COVID-19 cases in the United States and Asia potentially slowing growth.