Oil prices bounce up after sell off

Oil prices bounced up on Thursday following sharp decline as traders bought the dip.

Oil prices have fallen about 18 percent since the beginning of this year as market expected the supply to surpass demand, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided to keep crude production pumping at current level in the already oversupplied market.

The 13-member OPEC took no action to shore up the market and decided against cutting output. The cartel's output accounts for around 40 percent of the global crude output.

Thanks to the US shale oil revolution, American oil production has almost doubled in the past six years.

The US crude production added 8,000 to 9.227 million barrels a day last week, according to the weekly report of the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) Wednesday.

The West Texas Intermediate for February delivery moved up 72 cents to settle at $31.2 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for February delivery increased 72 cents to close at $31.03 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.