The price of oil rose to near $87 a barrel today, boosted by expanding exports in Germany and higher growth in electricity consumption and industrial production in China.
Benchmark crude for January delivery was up 79 cents to $86.72 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The contract had fallen 33 cents to finish at $85.93 a barrel on Friday.
Brent crude, which is used to price international varieties of oil, added $1.30 to $108.32 a barrel, on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
Exports from Germany, Europe's biggest economy, rose by 0.3% in October after falling by 2.4% in September and were 10.6% higher than in October 2012.
Analysts had been expecting German exports to continue their slide and the positive figures lifted expectations that oil demand could improve.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti's weekend announcement that he would resign by the end of the year sent stock markets lower across Europe and pointed to a lower open in the US, but did not seem to deter oil prices.
Signs that China's economy is recovering from a slowdown also suggested an increase in energy demand. The Chinese government said over the weekend that factory output increased 10.1% in November from a year earlier, up an annual rise of 9.6% in October. Retail sales rose 14.9%, up from October's 14.5%.
Markets were also awaiting this week's meeting in Vienna of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which produces about a third of the world's oil supply.
Analysts said that no change to the production target is likely at the meeting.
