Oil prices increased on Tuesday following signals from US Democrats over a potential compromise in the coronavirus relief package.
International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $42.62 per barrel at 0612 GMT for a 0.45% increase after closing Monday at $42.43 a barrel.
American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at $40.31 a barrel at the same time for a 0.72% decrease after ending the previous session at $40.60 per barrel.
Oil prices slightly increased after the US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi pointed to “common ground” following the Democrats unveiling a scaled-back $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package.
According to political risk and oil analyst Jose Chalhoub, the pandemic continues to overshadow geopolitical risks such as the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which could threaten pipeline supplies.
“Due to the pandemic-related lackluster demand, oil prices did not show a major reaction to the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia that started this weekend with an uncertain possibility that this conflict could cause an interruption in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which transports oil to the world market via Azerbaijan,”
The number of COVID-19 deaths worldwide is now over 1 million, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.
While the US still tops the number of cases above 7.1 million as of Tuesday morning, India has increased its cases to more than 6.1 million, and Brazil follows with over 4.7 million cases.
By Sibel Morrow
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr