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Brent crude futures were down 30 cents, or 0.4%, at $68.16 a
barrel by 1004 GMT, having jumped 3% on Monday. U.S. West Texas
Intermediate futures were off 42 cents, or 0.6%, at $65.63 a
barrel, after gaining 3.9% the previous session.
Indirect negotiations between the United States and Iran are due
to resume in Vienna this week. Talks were given another life
after Tehran and the U.N. nuclear agency extended a monitoring
agreement on the Middle Eastern country's atomic programme.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday said the United
States has not seen yet whether Iran will move to comply with
its nuclear commitments in order to have sanctions removed even
as ongoing talks have shown progress.
"It seems that the market no longer expects the nuclear
agreement between the US and Iran to be reinstated in the near
future, or therefore that Iranian oil exports will quickly
return to the global market," Commerzbank said in a note.
Still, the global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is patchy,
indicating a mixed outlook for oil demand.
Parts of Europe and the United States are recording fewer
infections and deaths, prompting governments to ease
restrictions, but in other areas such as India - the world's
third-biggest oil importer - rates are still high.
New coronavirus infections in India rose by 222,315, government
data showed on Monday, the world's biggest 24-hour increase,
though numbers have fallen off highs of over 400,000 earlier
this month.
The German economy shrank more than expected in the first
quarter as coronavirus-related restrictions spurred householders
to put more money than ever into savings, data showed on
Tuesday.
(Additional reporting by Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo; Editing by
Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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