Oil back to fall after levelling off a day ago

Light, sweet crude for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $1.14 to settle at $54.23 a barrel Thursday, after briefly rising as high as $55.90. On the ICE Futures exchange in London, Brent crude fell $1.31 to settle at $54.12 a barrel, the APA reports.

Investors halted recent sharp drops after growing more confident OPEC production cuts would come into view.

The US federal government has announced plans to boost the country's emergency crude stockpile to 1.5 billion barrels.

This announcement has caused oil prices to settle above US$55 a barrel on Tuesday, a rally that is expected to last only until Thursday's inventory report from the Department of Energy.