Crude oil futures bounced higher on Tuesday to recoup most of the losses they saw a day earlier as traders looked for positive signs from OPEC’s production curb, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
March West Texas Intermediate crude rose 43 cents, or 0.8%, to settle at $53.18 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
March Brent crude, the global benchmark, added 21 cents, or 0.4%, to end trading at $55.44 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Exchange.
WTI oil futures have been trading in a narrow range around the low $50s over the past month as traders await further updates on the progress in production cuts by OPEC and other major crude producers who are part of an agreement began earlier this month. OPEC members agreed to cut output amounting to about 1% of global production, but uncertainty remains over their commitment to the pact.
Over the weekend, OPEC reported that 1.5 million barrels a day had been cut from the oil market, reflecting about 80% of the amount they pledged to cut.
“The market is just hesitant to go much higher until there are some signs that U.S. production momentum is slowing,” said Robbie Fraser, commodity analyst at Schneider Electric.
Looking ahead, weekly data on domestic petroleum supplies are due out late Tuesday from the American Petroleum Institute and early Wednesday from the EIA.
Meanwhile, February natural gas ended at $3.279 per million British thermal units, up 3.6 cents, or 1.1%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.