US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for March delivery advanced 75 cents to settle at $53.53 a barrel, on the contract’s final day of trade.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for April delivery, the global benchmark, settled at $62.53 a barrel, up $1.13 from Monday.
WTI touched a low of $50.81 during the day before clawing back into positive territory in the last hour of trade.
“It’s been a pretty impressive move,” said Bob Yawger of Mizuho Securities.
Yawger said that traders appeared to be readjusting their bets as the contract expired.
“I don’t really see a fundamental reason for the rally,” he said, adding that the Department of Energy’s weekly inventories report would probably be bearish for the market.
Typically released on Wednesdays, the DoE report was rescheduled to Thursday because of Monday’s public holiday.
Last week’s report showed US crude inventories reached their highest levels on record.
Yawger noted that Iraq has slashed some of its exports but that news had been out late Monday, “so this is not what has supported the market for the last minutes here.”
Phil Flynn of Price Futures Group said that largely offline supply in Libya was supporting oil prices.
Infighting and sabotage in Libya has reduced output to 150,000 barrels a day, down from a high of almost 1.5 million barrels per day, he said.
Flynn said the beheading of Christians in Libya by militants affiliated with the Islamic State group showed the threat from the Islamic fundamentalist extremists is expanding.
“Risk premium in oil may start to come back and the glut of oil may tighten faster than many people think,” he said.
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