Brent crude is close to $83 a barrel

Oil prices rose on Monday, supported by hopes of an increase in demand during the Northern Hemisphere summer season, which offset the impact of Chinese economic data that showed a tentative recovery for the world’s biggest crude importer.

Apart from retail sales that beat expectations due to increased holiday demand, most of China’s economic data released today was largely negative and was in line with a survey on Friday that showed US consumer sentiment had down in June. Low volume in seven months.

Brent crude was up 33 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $82.95 a barrel by 12:12 GMT, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 25 cents, or 0.3 at hundred, at $78.70 per barrel.

Last week, both benchmarks posted their first weekly gains in four weeks, supported by hopes that oil inventories will fall as the Northern Hemisphere summer begins amid continued supply cuts by the OPEC+ alliance.

Saxo Bank’s Ole Hansen said: “The crude oil market initially reacted negatively to mixed data from China… but strong fuel demand expectations for next quarter, followed by Saudi Arabia’s commitment to restart in October. More emphasis on conditions and quota violators “to reduce and reduce production. , all of which seem supportive.”

OPEC Plus production increases planned for the fourth quarter could be temporarily halted or both Russia and Iraq pledged last week to pay more than their quotas to OPEC Plus.

Two reports released last week by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the International Energy Agency bolstered hopes that oil inventories will decline in the second half of the year, although they differed on the strength of oil demand growth this year .

But despite market expectations that oil prices will rise in the third quarter, there are risks to prices if the supply-demand balance remains weak, Bank of America analysts said in a report.

“It remains unclear whether the balance between supply and demand will improve enough in the third quarter to allow the market to shift from a large surplus to a deficit, leading to higher prices,” the analysts wrote.

Geopolitically, fears of a wider war in the Middle East continued after the Israeli military said on Sunday that heavy cross-border fire on Israel by the Lebanese Hezbollah group could lead to a dangerous escalation.