Crude oil futures ended slightly higher on Tuesday as broad hopes for a demand recovery persisted despite new outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus prompting fresh mobility curbs worldwide. Meanwhile, traders looked ahead to the upcoming meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+). The OPEC+ meeting, scheduled to take place on Thursday (July 1), will likely see the members agreeing on increasing crude output by an additional 500,000 barrels a day from August amid hopes energy demand will pick up. Traders were also awaiting weekly oil reports from the American Petroleum Institute (API) and US Energy Information Administration (EIA). While the API's report is due later on Tuesday, the EIA is scheduled to release its report Wednesday.
Crude oil futures for August added $0.07 to settle at $72.98 barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. August Brent crude gained $0.37 or 0.5 percent to settle at $75.05 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.