Brent advance 0.44% to 22.86 dollars around 3:50 pm.
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Oil prices, which hit an 18-year low on Monday, wiped out part of their gains Tuesday during the European session, despite a good indicator in China and trade between Washington and Moscow.
Around 1:50 p.m. GMT (3:50 p.m. CET), a barrel of Brent North Sea crude for delivery in May, which is the last trading day, was worth 22.86 dollars in London, up 0.44% compared to Monday’s close.
In New York, the American barrel of WTI for May gained 2.49%, to 20.59 dollars.
The day before, the two benchmarks fell to their lowest since 2002, touching floors in session respectively at 21.65 dollars and 19.27 dollars per barrel.
However, prices were trending upward from the start of the Asian session on Tuesday, supported by the surprise rebound in the manufacturing activity index in China in March, after an all-time low the previous month, enough to allow investors ” to hope for a faster recovery after the lifting of containment measures, “said Bjornar Tonhaugen of Rystad Energy earlier today.
Discussions at the highest level on Monday of the two largest oil producers in the world, with the aim of putting an end to the price war launched by Ryad after the failure of negotiations between the members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) ) and their allies in early March, were also likely to add momentum to prices.
US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed by telephone on Monday on “the importance of stability in the international energy market,” according to a statement from the White House.
But “the (price) levels are still extremely low and the situation is not optimistic,” said Craig Erlam of Oanda.
On the one hand, drastic movement restrictions put in place by states to counter the spread of the coronavirus pandemic have dampened demand for crude oil.
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia announced on Monday that it wanted to further flood the market by bringing its oil exports to the record level of 10.6 million barrels per day (bpd) from May.
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