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Oil climbed more than a dollar towards US$56 a barrel on Tuesday, on forecasts for a fall in distillate stocks in the United States after consumers burned more heating fuel in cold weather.
The market recovered from a slide of more than US$1 on Monday amid aggressive selling across the commodities complex.
US light crude was up US$1.75 at US$55.76 a barrel by 1654 GMT after falling US$1.41 on Monday. London Brent crude was up US$1.63 at US$55.31.
The cold snap is likely to have reduced US distillate inventories, including heating oil, by 2.2 million barrels last week, analysts said in a Reuters poll.
Crude stocks were forecast to rise by 1.3 million barrels when the government next releases inventory data on Wednesday.
After exceptionally mild temperatures, recent colder weather has helped prices recover some ground after dipping to a 20-month low on Jan. 18 of US$49.90 a barrel, but oil is still down 11 per cent so far this year.
The market has mostly traded in a range of US$50-US$56 a barrel range for the past three weeks and was showing little sign of breaking out, analysts said.
- REUTERS
