NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices rose on Tuesday as broad hopes for a demand recovery persisted, fueled by comments from OPEC’s secretary general, overshadowed travel curbs due to new outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus.
Brent crude futures were up 33 cents, or 0.4%, at $75.01 a barrel by 11:49 a.m. EDT (1649 GMT), having slumped by 2% on Monday.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 28 cents, or 0.4%, to $73.19 after a 1.5% retreat on Monday.
Demand in 2021 was expected to grow by 6 million barrels per day (bpd), with 5 million bpd of that in the second half, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo told Tuesday’s meeting of the Joint Technical Committee of OPEC+, an alliance made up of OPEC states, Russia and their allies.
