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Brent crude was up $1.01, or 1.6%, to $64.29 a barrel by 0917
GMT.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) U.S. crude rose $1.02, or 1.7%, to
$61.02 a barrel.
Both contracts closed about 7% lower on Thursday as several
large European economies reimposed lockdowns and vaccination
programmes were slowed by distribution issues and concerns about
possible side effects.
Although Germany, France and other countries have announced the
resumption of inoculations after regulators declared the
AstraZeneca vaccine safe, the programme halt has made it harder
to overcome resistance to vaccines among some of the population.
Britain also announced it would have to slow its COVID-19
vaccine rollout next month due to a supply delay.
"Concerns are rapidly growing of a mobility-depressing third
wave in Europe amid a pause in vaccinations and rapid spread of
the B117 mutation that originated in the UK," JP Morgan said.
The bank still sees Brent averaging above $70 a barrel in the
fourth quarter, however.
Goldman Sachs said headwinds related to European Union demand
and Iran supply would slow the oil market rebalancing by 750,000
barrels per day (bpd) in the second quarter, although it expects
the OPEC+ grouping of the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries and allies to act to offset that.
Iran has moved record amounts of crude oil to top client China
in recent months, while India's state refiners have added
Iranian oil to their annual import plans on the assumption that
U.S. sanctions on the OPEC supplier will soon ease.
Goldman expects a significant increase in global oil demand in
the coming months, with its Brent forecast rising to $80 per
barrel this summer.
(Additional reporting by Shu Zhang in Singapore and Aaron
Sheldrick in Tokyo; editing by Jason Neely)
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