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An off-shore oil platform off the coast in Huntington Beach, California on April 5, 2020. Leonard Ortiz | MediaNews Group | Orange County Register | Getty Images Oil prices fell on Thursday

after an unexpected rise in U.S. crude oil inventories and as rising COVID-19 infections threaten demand, but prices held on to most of their gains from the previous session on expectations

that supplies will remain tight through year-end. Brent crude fell 32 cents, or 0.4%, to $71.91 a barrel at 0347 GMT, after rising 4.2% in the previous session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate

(WTI) crude fell 27 cents, or 0.4%, to $70.03 a barrel, after rising 4.6% on Wednesday. "Volatility in energy remains elevated as traders grapple with short-term demand weakness from

Delta variant concerns and expectations the crude deficits will last till the end of the year," said Edward Moya, senior analyst at OANDA. "Oil will struggle to recoup all of its

losses until the trend of new curbs or restrictions starts to ease across Southeast Asia, Australia, and Europe," he said. Crude inventories in the United States, the world's top

oil consumer, rose unexpectedly by 2.1 million barrels last week to 439.7 million barrels, up for the first time since May, U.S. Energy Information Administration data showed. Analysts had

expected a 4.5 million-barrel drop. Still, gasoline and distillate inventories posted draws of 121,000 barrels and 1.3 million barrels, respectively, indicating higher demand due to the

summer driving season. With OPEC+, comprising the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies like Russia, unlikely to get the market soon and Iranian negotiations delayed,

the most relevant risk to market fundamentals remains a deterioration of demand due to new virus restrictions, analysts from Citi said. "Only a really tremendous demand shortfall would

tip the market balance into a surplus," they added. JPMorgan analysts expect global demand to average 99.6 million barrels per day (mbd) in August, up by 5.4 mbd from April. Oil prices

fell earlier this week following a deal by OPEC+ to boost supply by 400,000 barrels per day from August through December.