Oil prices rose on Monday after officials said the U.S. had intercepted an oil tanker in international waters off the coast of Venezuela, raising fears of supply disruption.
Brent crude futures gained 52 cents, or 0.86%, to $60.99 a barrel by 0918 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose by 50 cents, or 0.88%, to $57.02.
"The market is waking up to the fact that the Trump administration is taking a hardline approach to Venezuelan oil trade," said June Goh, senior oil market analyst at Sparta Commodities.
Venezuelan crude accounts for about 1% of global supply.
"Oil prices have thus been supported by this geopolitical news alongside the simmering Russia-Ukraine tensions in the background in an otherwise very bearish market fundamentally," said Goh.
The U.S. Coast Guard is pursuing an oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela in what would be the second such operation over the weekend and the third in less than two weeks if successful, officials told Reuters on Sunday.
A rebound in oil prices has been sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a "total and complete" blockade of sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers and subsequent developments there, followed by reports of a Ukrainian drone strike on a Russian shadow fleet vessel in the Mediterranean, said IG analyst Tony Sycamore.
The Brent and WTI benchmarks fell by about 1% last week.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that talks between U.S., European and Ukrainian officials in Florida over the past three days in an effort to end Russia’s war in Ukraine had focused on aligning positions. Those meetings and separate talks with Russian negotiators had been productive, he said.
However, the top foreign policy aide of Russian President Vladimir Putin said that changes made by the Europeans and Ukraine to U.S. proposals had not improved prospects for peace.