Brent crude stayed near its four month high in the latter stages of Tuesday’s trading session.

Having touched a low of US$63 early on, Brent headed back to the US$65 a barrel mark in afternoon deals.

Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi said in a speech he expected Asian oil demand to grow and that Saudi, the world's top oil exporter, would be ready to meet that demand

Commerzbank analysts said the recent uptick for Brent crude has served to drive pessimists out of the market.

West Texas Intermediate, meanwhile, has risen for six consecutive weeks and was up 1% at US$57.5 an hour after US markets opened.

Prices had fallen earlier on expectations that industry data from the American Petroleum Institute would show another build in US crude stockpiles to record highs last week.

Some company news: the oil price collapse took its toll on integrated oil giant 's ( ) profits, which fell sharply in the first quarter.

’s underlying replacement cost profit for the quarter was US$2.58bln compared with US$3.2bln for the same period in 2014 and US$2.2bln for the fourth quarter of 2014.

Among the small caps: ( ) this morning moved to provide some comfort over the tenure of the two licences around Gatwick Airport that could be host to the UK’s biggest ever onshore find.



