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Brent crude <LCOc1> was up 49 cents, or 1.2%, at $42.79 per
barrel, by 1040 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI)
crude <CLc1> rose 27 cents, or 0.7%, to $39.82 a barrel.
Both hit their highest since March 6 earlier in the session, at
$43.41 and $40.44, respectively.
Brent has nearly doubled since the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries, Russia and allies - collectively known as
OPEC+ - agreed in April to cut supply by 9.7 million barrels per
day (bpd) during May-June to prop up prices that collapsed due
to the coronavirus crisis.
On Saturday, OPEC+ agreed to extend the deal to withdraw almost
10% of global supplies from the market by a third month to
end-July. Following the extension, top exporter Saudi Arabia
hiked its monthly crude prices for July.
Price increases fell short of rallies on Friday.
"Because Saudi Arabia and Russia pre-agreed the outcome of these
meetings, it could be argued that the market had reasonable
confidence in the outcome once the date of the meetings was
set," BNP Paribas Global Head of Commodity Markets Strategy
Harry Tchilinguirian told the Reuters Global Oil Forum.
"As a result, this weekend's agreement was somewhat priced-in by
the close of business on Friday."
Low prices have drawn Chinese buyers to boost imports. Purchases
by the world's largest crude importer rose to an all-time high
of 11.3 million bpd in May.
But consultancy JBC Energy warned higher prices could discourage
buying and undercut a fragile demand recovery.
"We cannot shake the feeling that, price-wise, this market has
gotten a bit ahead of itself and will need a good confluence of
bullish surprises to continue in order to maintain current
pricing levels," JBC said in note.
(Additional reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Kenneth
Maxwell and Louise Heavens)
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