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Brent rose 89 cents, or 1.3%, to $68.16 a barrel by 1115 GMT,
and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 83 cents, or 1.3%,
at $64.69 a barrel.
This is the third consecutive day that both contracts have
climbed.
"The performance of the past few days demonstrates the unbroken
faith of the market in healthy economic and demand recovery,"
Tamas Varga, analyst at PVM Oil associates said.
"It also implies that the perilous and devastating COVID
nightmare engulfing in India, Japan and Turkey, amongst others,
is not expected to have a long-lasting impact on economic
expansion."
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and
its allies, a group known as OPEC+, stuck to its plans this week
for a gradual easing of oil production curbs from May to July.
OPEC+ expects global stocks to reach 2.95 billion barrels in
July, taking them below the 2015-2019 average.
"A closer look at the state of global oil inventories suggests
that the market may be closer to the point of rebalancing than
what OPEC+ may think," Citi analysts said, adding that the
market has absorbed most of the crude inventory overhang,
although refined products inventories are still relatively high.
The bank expects vaccination campaigns in North America and
Europe to boost oil demand to a record high of 101.5 million
barrels per day (bpd) over the northern hemisphere summer
months, but said rising COVID-19 cases in Brazil and India could
hit local demand if stricter lockdowns are reimposed.
"The outbreak in India is holding back oil's rally," Howie Lee,
an economist at Singapore's OCBC bank, said.
Europe's major energy companies profited from a rise in oil
prices to report big increases in first-quarter earnings,
putting the worst of a pandemic-linked slump in fuel demand
behind them.
BP < BP.L>, Total and Equinor reported first-quarter profits
above pre-pandemic levels.
A weak dollar also lent some support to oil. The dollar was
pinned near nine-week lows as a dovish outlook from the U.S.
Federal Reserve and bold spending plans from the White House
gave a green light for the global reflation trade.
Investors also focused on a ramp-up in U.S. refinery operating
rates and a drawdown in distillates stocks last week, in data
released by the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in London, additional
reporting by Florence Tan and Roslan Khasawneh in Singapore;
Editing by Barbara Lewis and Bernadette Baum)
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