WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oil futures settled sharply higher on Tuesday amid rising hopes about outlook for energy demand after the United States lifted travel restrictions to several countries.
The U.S. has started accepting fully vaccinated travelers at airports and land borders from Monday, doing away with a COVID-19 restriction that dates back to the Trump administration.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration's Short Term Energy Outlook report that said gasoline prices this year and in 2022 are likely to rise slightly more than forecast earlier supported oil prices.
Speculation about likely release of crude from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve supported oil's rise.
The passage of the $1 trillion U.S. infrastructure bill in Congress and strong Chinese exports data contributed as well to rising optimism about energy demand growth.
West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended up by $2.22 or about 2.7% at $84.15 a barrel, the highest settlement since October 26.
Brent crude futures were up $1.35 or 1.62% at $84.78 a barrel a little while ago.
The EIA projected retail regular grade gasoline would average $3.00 per gallon in 2021 and $2.91 in 2022. That compares with its outlook in October of $2.97 in 2021 and $2.90 in 2022.
Meanwhile, traders looked ahead to weekly inventory reports from the American Petroleum Institute (API) and EIA. While API's report is due later today, the EIA's data on U.S. crude inventories will be out Wednesday morning.
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