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Brent crude futures for March rose 23 cents, or 0.4%, to $55.76
a barrel by 1007 GMT.
The Brent March contract expires on Friday. The more active
April contract was up 27 cents, or 0.5%, at $55.37.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 7 cents,
or 0.1%, to $52.41.
"Restrictions on the demand side because of lockdowns are
countered by a sufficient reduction in supply ... preventing
prices from falling or rising to any significant extent," said
Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch.
Saudi Arabia is set to cut output by 1 million barrels per day
(bpd) in February and March. Compliance with output curbs by the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies,
together known as OPEC+, has improved in January.
A 9.9 million barrel drawdown in U.S. oil inventories last week
and forecasts for a small drop in U.S. oil production in
February were also price-supportive. [EIA/S]
However, market gains have been capped by worries about stalled
vaccine rollouts and the spread of contagious new variants of
the coronavirus.
Europe’s fight to secure COVID-19 vaccine supplies intensified
on Thursday when the European Union warned drug companies such
as AstraZeneca that it would use all legal means or even block
exports to ensure shots are delivered as promised.
"The expected rebound in global oil demand depends a great deal
on the pace of COVID-19 vaccine distribution," said Stephen
Brennock of broker PVM.
"Any loss of momentum in vaccination programmes will undermine
the strength of the global oil demand recovery."
(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in London; Additional
reporting by Roslan Khasawneh in Singapore and Sonali Paul in
Melbourne; Editing by David Goodman)
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