MELBOURNE Reuters -- Oil prices climbed on Tuesday after a rebound from last week's plunge on growing expectations that major producers would pause plans to add crude supply in January due to uncertainty over the severity of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate WTI crude futures went up 99 cents, or 1.4%, to $70.94 a barrel at 0105 GMT, adding to a 2.6% rise on Monday.
After gaining 1% on Monday, the price of crude futures climbed 82 cents, or 1.1%, to $74.26 a barrel.
On Friday, oil plunged around 12% on Friday because of fears that the heavily mutated Omicron would cause further lock-downs and dent global growth.
The World Health Organization said on Monday that Omicron was a very high risk of infection surges, and several countries increased travel curbs. It is not known how severe the new variant is and whether it can resist existing vaccines.
Expectations are growing that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting countries, Russia and their allies, along called OPEC due to meet on December 2 will put on hold plans to add 400,000 barrels per day of supply in January.
In a note, Commonwealth Bank commodities analyst Vivek Dhar said that the group will lean towards pausing output hikes in light of the Omicron variant and the oil stockpile release by major oil consumers.
Pressure was already building withinOPEC to reconsider its supply plan after the release of emergency crude reserves by the United States and other major oil-consuming nations last week to address soaring prices.
After the global strategic reserve releases and the announcement of dozens of countries restricting travel to and from South Africa and neighbouring nations, OPEC and its allies can justify an output halt or even a slight cut in production, according to Edward Moya, OANDA analyst Edward Moya.
The possibility of a resumption of oil exports from Iran is also weighing on the market, as diplomats said that talks between world powers and Iran resumed on Monday on the topic of a reviving of a nuclear pact.