Sharjah24 - Reuters: Oil settled nearly unchanged on Wednesday as broader concerns about economic growth and oil demand stagnation weighed against tightening supplies.

Brent crude futures rose 45 cents, or 0.4 %, to settle at $106.80 a barrel.

The front-month WTI crude futures contract, which expires on Wednesday, rose 19 cents to settle at $102.75, unchanged.

Oil prices have been supported by a tighter supply outlook after sanctions against Russia - the world's second-largest oil exporter and a key European supplier - over its invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a "special operation."

"With the Ukraine war escalating, the likelihood of an extended duration of the conflict increases and the potential loss of Russian supply to the market lifts," Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Illinois.

The market was also supported by a government report indicating U.S. crude stockpiles fell by 8 million barrels last week due to a surge in exports to a more than a two-year high, Energy Information Administration data showed.