Oil inches up as tight supply, vaccinations outweigh virus concerns | Reuters

Oil inches up as tight supply, vaccinations outweigh virus concerns | Reuters

Oil prices rose on Tuesday with investors betting tight supply and rising vaccination rates will help offset any impact on demand due to surging COVID-19 cases worldwide.

Brent crude futures climbed 34 cents, or 0.46%, to $74.84 a barrel at 0508 GMT, extending a 0.5% gain on Monday.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 20 cents, or 0.28%, to $72.11 a barrel, after losing 16 cents on Monday.

Benchmark prices rose even after the United States issued travel warnings to Spain and Portugal due to rising COVID-19 cases and a White House official told Reuters that wider travel curbs will not be lifted due to the highly infectious Delta variant and rising domestic infections.

“Oil prices are set to range this week after recovering all of the “delta-dip” losses from the last Monday week,” Jeffrey Halley, a senior Asia Pacific market analyst at OANDA, wrote in a note. “Both contracts should continue to consolidate their gains, with volatility much reduced from last week.”