Oil increased as the top exporter Saudi Arabia indicated OPEC+ was continuing to output curbs and might take more measures to balance the market, outweighing concerns about a global recession and the rising number of COVID-19 cases in China.
Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the energy minister for Saudi Arabia, was also cited by the state news agency SPA as refuting a Wall Street Journal article that said OPEC was considering increasing supply, which caused prices to drop by more than 5%.
At $81.04, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for the United States was up $1.00, or 1.3%.
Both a G7 proposal that would let shipping service companies to aid in the export of Russian oil but only at imposed low rates and a prohibition on the importation of Russian crude oil by the European Union are about to go into effect.