On Monday, oil prices were unsteady with Brent trading higher on supply concerns, while West Texas Intermediate WTI fell as traders balanced supply concerns against worries about a recession or China's COVID 19 curbs on demand.
Brent crude LCOc 1 futures were up 11 cents, or 0.1%, at $107.13 a barrel at 0102 GMT, adding to a 2.3% gain on Friday.
US crude CLc 1 futures fell 15 cents, or 0.1%, to $104.64 a barrel, paring a 2% gain from Friday.
A public holiday in parts of Southeast Asia was a cause of the trading to be thinned.
Net long positions in WTI crude futures have fallen to their lowest level since March 2020, when demand collapsed due to the initial outbreak of COVID- 19. ANZ Research analysts said that this is despite ongoing signs of tightness.
Both benchmark contracts traded lower in early trade on Monday and turned positive before trading in different directions.
The latest data on COVID 19 cases in China showed that numbers had fallen from the previous day, but concerns remain about the possibility of wider lockdowns after a new Omicron subvariant was discovered in Shanghai.
The market is worried about plans by Western nations to cap Russian oil prices, with President Vladimir Putin warning that further sanctions could lead to catastrophic consequences for the global energy market.
Questions remain about how long crude from Kazakhstan via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium CPC will flow for. Supply has continued on the pipeline, which contains about 1% of global oil, even after it was ordered by a Russian court to suspend operations last week.
A load schedule shows that CPC Blend crude oil exports are poised to rise to 5.45 million tons for August from 4.86 million tons in July.