Crude oil futures ended higher on Monday as the U.S. announced plans to refill its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) through to May, signaling it will buy 3 million barrels of crude oil until March. However, the upside was just marginal due to continued uncertainty about the outlook for energy demand, and on worries the output cuts by OPEC+ may not be sufficient to restrict inventories any significantly low.
Benchmark crude oil futures for January delivery added $0.09 or about 0.13 percent to settle at $71.32 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for February delivery surged $0.19 or about 0.25 percent to settle at $76.03 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.