The price of oil rose modestly above $88 a barrel today as traders returned to commodities after big sell-offs last week.
By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for May was up 48 cents to $88.49 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The Nymex contact had risen by 28 cents to finish at $88.01 a barrel on Friday night.
The June contract for Brent crude was up 77 cents to $100.42 on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
Analysts said relatively low prices had rekindled interest among buyers.
Traders cautiously returned to buying certain key commodities on Friday, including gold and oil, after big sell-offs.
They also said prices are being supported by the possibility that oil-producing countries could reduce output in order to boost prices.
Crude has lost about $9 a barrel since the beginning of the month amid concerns of sluggish growth in China and the US, while oil remained well supplied.
Prices were also supported by shipping data which analysts say point to OPEC slowly cutting output.
Figures cited by Frankfurt's Commerzbank from consultant firm Oil Movements show that OPEC oil deliveries are due to fall by 220,000 barrels a day in the four weeks to May 4 compared with the previous four weeks. If true, oil shipments would be at their lowest level in two months, Commerzbank said.
Near the end of 2012, Saudi Arabia made an unannounced cut to its oil shipments of around 1 million barrels a day, citing slack demand.
