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Brent crude futures rose 39 cents or 0.5% to $74.56 a barrel by
1120 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $70.45
a barrel, up 41 cents or 0.6%.
Last week, both benchmarks fell for a fourth consecutive week,
the longest streak of weekly declines since September 2022, over
concerns the United States could enter a recession amid risk of
a historic default at the beginning of June.
"With the uneven re-opening in China and concerns that the U.S
is facing a growth slowdown at a time when the X-date for the
debt ceiling is rapidly approaching, topped off by a rally in
the U.S dollar, market sentiment towards crude oil will remain
tepid at best," IG analyst Tony Sycamore said.
Still, global crude supplies could tighten in the second half as
the OPEC+ grouping, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries and its allies, including Russia, is making additional
output cuts that are reducing sour crude volumes.
The group announced in April that some members would cut output
further by around 1.16 million barrels per day, bringing the
total volume of cuts to 3.66 million bpd, according to Reuters
calculations.
However, Iraq does not expect OPEC+ to make further cuts to oil
output at its next meeting on June 4, said its oil minister,
Hayan Abdel-Ghani.
Meanwhile, flows of northern Iraqi crude oil to Turkey's Ceyhan
port have yet to resume following Baghdad's request to restart
them last week, industry sources said on Monday, helping keep
global supplies tight.
The U.S. could start repurchasing oil for the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve (SPR) after completing a congressionally
mandated sale in June, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told
lawmakers on Thursday.
Meanwhile, leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations could
announce new measures at their May 19-21 meetings that target
sanctions evasion involving third countries, said officials with
direct knowledge of the discussions.
The tightening of sanctions will also seek to undermine Russia's
future energy production and curb trade that supports the
Russian military, the people said.
(Additional reporting by Florence Tan in Singapore and Mohi
Narayan in New Delhi; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise,
Kirsten Donovan)
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