Oil prices climbed on Tuesday to the highest level in a year extending gains from the prior session as traders were confident that global crude demand may return to its pre-pandemic levels as several COVID vaccines get the greenlight and as progress is being made on fixing production and distribution concerns. Sentiment was also boosted by strong compliance to output cut commitments by OPEC+ in January and the beginning of Saudi Arabia’s voluntary 1 million barrel per day supply cuts on February 1st. Still, concerns over rising COVID-19 cases globally lingered, while travel restrictions in China ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays are keeping oil demand weak in the region. Traders now await weekly inventory reports by the API later in the day and the US EIA on Wednesday. WTI crude was up by 1.1% to $54.12 a barrel while Brent rose 1% to $56.92 a barrel, at around 07:15 AM GMT.
