London's Brent crude led gains on oil futures markets in electronic trade on Tuesday and brokers said technical indicators pointed to a move higher with the long-term up-trend intact despite recent losses.
IPE Brent crude for May delivery climbed 15 cents, or 0.46 percent, to $32.95 a barrel, while NYMEX light crude for May rose eight cents to $37.13, a gain of 0.3 percent.
"People are sitting on their hands, there's a little nervousness in the market. The physical markets look a little bearish but the technicals are bullish, the head and heart are going in opposite directions," said a broker based in London.
Monday's settlement above $37 for US crude despite a near $1 sell off indicated underlying strength, he said. Prices fell on Monday after a senior Opec delegate said the producers' group might delay an April cut to supply until June due to high oil prices.
"The long-term trend is still intact and the funds are coming in and buying bits and bobs, I doubt anyone wants to go short at the moment."
Volumes were thin with roughly 2,500 contracts traded, including spreads, across the NYMEX crude board compared with a more usual 6,000 for the time of the day.
One broker pegged major resistance for NYMEX crude at the highs of last week in the $38.35/$38.50 region, with support kicking in at $36.60 and $35.30.
"If we go through $35.30 we would see a lot of liquidation of length and could be back to $30 a barrel very quickly," he said.
Hints that Opec may not implement a one million barrel-a-day production cut from April 1 sent oil prices sliding on Monday, despite low US fuel inventories and surging demand in China.
Data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) due for release on Wednesday are expected to show declines in US national gasoline and distillate inventories in the week to March 19, but a rise in crude stocks due to heavy imports.
A Reuters poll of eight analysts predicted a drop of 1.4 million barrels in US gasoline supplies, further drawing down supplies ahead of the peak demand summer holiday season.
The survey also forecast a decline of 1.1 million barrels in distillate stocks, with crude tanks rising 2.25 million barrels.
The EIA said on Monday that US gasoline demand was likely to set a record in 2004, with demand rising 100,000 bpd over last year's levels during the peak summer driving, which traditionally begins in late May.
NYMEX April gasoline climbed 0.29 cents to $1.1320 a gallon, while April heating oil rose 0.23 cent to 91.60 cents a gallon.
On the Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM), energy futures recouped some of the earlier losses that were triggered by the overnight move on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The benchmark TOCOM August crude contract was down 170 yen to 20,210 yen per kilolitre (yen/kl).
TOCOM October gasoline traded 10 yen lower at 30,420 yen/kl, while October kerosene was down 30 yen at 30,060 yen/kl.
October gas oil was at 28,980 yen/kl, down 120 yen.