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Brent oil was up $1.28, or 2%, to $63.98 a barrel by 1050 GMT.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $1.17, or 2%, to
$60.92 a barrel.
"The fundamentals of the oil market suggest further strength as
oil demand grows with the recovery and leisure and travel
activity is likely to bounce," said Norbert Rücker, analyst at
Swiss bank Julius Baer.
"We see oil prices pushing temporarily above $70 by mid-year,"
he added.
Oil prices jumped after Reuters reported based on three sources
that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries,
Russia and their allies, a group known as OPEC+, are considering
rolling over production cuts from March into April rather than
raising output.
The group meets on Thursday. The market had been widely
expecting OPEC+ to ease production cuts.
Kuwaiti Oil Minister Mohammad al-Fares said the oil market was
being supported by optimism about vaccinations.
U.S. President Joe Biden said the United States would have
enough COVID-19 vaccines for every American adult by the end of
May, after Merck & Co agreed to make rival Johnson & Johnson's
inoculation.
Biden said he hoped that the United States would be "back to
normal" at this time next year and potentially sooner.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) industry group reported
U.S. crude stocks rose by 7.4 million barrels in the week to
Feb. 26, in stark contrast to analysts' estimates for a draw of
928,000 barrels. [API/S]
However, that build occurred while U.S. refining capacity was
shut during the survey week because of cold weather in Texas.
Refinery runs fell by 1.75 million bpd, API data showed.
(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in London; Additional
reporting by Shu Zhang and Sonali Paul in Singapore; editing by
Edmund Blair and Jason Neely)
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