Crude Briefly Pares Gains on Japan Comments

Brent and U.S. crude futures briefly pared gains in volatile trading on Wednesday after the European Union's energy commissioner said Japan's nuclear crisis was "effectively out of control," before rebounding when the commissioner's spokesman said he had no specific extra information about it.

ICE Brent April crude rose $2.19 to $110.71 a barrel at 11:17 a.m. EDT (1517 GMT), trading from $107.35 to $111.76.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, April crude rose $1 to $98.18 a barrel, trading from $96.22 to $99.60.