Crude oil futures settled higher on Monday, although the upside was just marginal due to continued uncertainty about the outlook for energy demand, and on worries the output cuts by OPEC+ may not be sufficient to restrict inventories any significantly low.
Oil prices found some support thanks to U.S. efforts to replenish strategic reserves. The U.S. announced plans to refill its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) through to May, signaling it will buy 3 million barrels of crude oil until March.
West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended with a small gain of $0.09 or 0.13% at $71.32 a barrel.
Brent crude futures settled at $76.03 a barrel today, gaining $0.19 or about 0.25%.
Oil prices moved up sharply on Friday, surging more than 2%, but still went down for a seventh consecutive week amid oversupply concerns.
Amid concerns about the outlook for fuel demand due to global economic slowdown, the additional 0.9-million barrels of voluntary production cuts from OPEC+ members announced last month has failed to convince traders supplies are low enough to support higher prices.
