Oil prices climbed on Tuesday as market participants awaited data on U.S. crude stockpiles.
The West Texas Intermediate for September delivery rose 69 cents to settle at 41.70 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for October delivery climbed 28 cents to close at 44.43 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration is set to release its weekly petroleum status report on Wednesday. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts forecast the U.S. crude inventories to show a fall of 4.1 million barrels in the latest week.
Despite Tuesday's gains, experts noted that the oil market is still faced with headwinds.
Kang Wu, energy analyst at S&P Global Platts, said in a note that global crude demand in "H1 2020 turned out to be better than expected because of China (May and June), India (June) and Western Europe," adding coronavirus uncertainty remains a concern which would potentially cloud demand outlook.
Eugen Weinberg, analyst at Commerzbank Research, noted that the fundamental environment remains difficult, with rising OPEC+ production and weak demand.
Last month, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, known as OPEC+, decided to scale back their record production cuts to 7.7 million barrels per day starting from August.
Editor:Cherie
