Investing.com - Crude oil prices turned higher on Tuesday, helped by a rebound in global equity markets and as investors turned their attention to the upcoming U.S. supply data this week.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude March contract was up 13 cents or about 0.20% at $59.44 a barrel by 04:00 a.m. ET (08:00 GMT), off Friday's one-and-a-half month low of $59.20.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for April delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London gained 15 cents or about 0.24% to $62.74 a barrel, after falling to a two-month trough of $61.77 on Friday.
Oil markets rose as global equity markets began to recover on Monday from last week's steep losses. U.S. markets were especially boosted by news on Monday of a $1.5 million infrastructure plan by the Trump administration.
Prices were also boosted after OPEC said on Monday that it expected world oil demand to climb by 1.59 million barrels per day (bpd) this year, an increase of 60,000 bpd from the previous forecast, reaching 98.6 million bpd.
OPEC also said the U.S. and other outside producers would boost supply by 1.4 million bpd this year, up 250,000 bpd from last month and the third consecutive rise from 870,000 bpd in November.
Because of non-OPEC production growth, oil markets will only return to a supply and demand balance "towards the end of this year," according to the Organization.
Oil prices signed their worst weekly loss in two years on Friday after General Electric (NYSE:GE)'s Baker Hughes energy services firm reported that the number of oil drilling rigs jumped by 26 to 791 last week.
That marked a third straight week of increases and the largest weekly rise in more than a year, implying that further gains in domestic production are ahead.
That added to fears that rising U.S. output would dampen OPEC’s efforts to rid the market of excess supplies.
The producer group, along with some non-OPEC members led by Russia, agreed in December to extend oil output cuts until the end of 2018.
The deal to cut oil output by 1.8 million barrels a day (bpd) was adopted last winter by OPEC, Russia and nine other global producers. The agreement was due to end in March 2018, having already been extended once.
This week, market participants are awaiting weekly information on U.S. stockpiles of crude and refined products on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Elsewhere, gasoline futures inched up 0.06% to $1.681 a gallon, while natural gas futures advanced 2.35% to $2.612 per million British thermal units.