Oil price rises above $31 

Brent LCOc1 was up 79 cents, or 2.6 per cent, at $31.76 a barrel at 0930 GMT, having risen in the past six sessions.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 added 88 cents, or 3.6 per cent, to $25.44.

“Clearly, the optimism of the re-opening of the global economy has supported the oil rally,’’ said Naeem Aslam, an analyst at Avatrade.

But in a reminder that a supply glut persists, the American Petroleum Institute said on Tuesday that U.S. crude inventories rose by 8.4 million barrels last week, more than analysts expected.

“We’re talking about normalisation of supply and demand but we’ve got a long way to go,’’ said Lachlan Shaw, National Australia Bank’s Head of Commodity Strategy.


Italy, Spain, Nigeria, and India as well as some U.S. states, began allowing some people to go back to work and opened up businesses, construction sites, parks and libraries.

Germany and 16 countries have agreed on ways to ease the lockdown.