LONDON—Crude futures were higher Tuesday, supported by a weaker dollar and stronger equity markets, although further gains could be limited ahead of the Greek parliament's austerity-package vote Wednesday.
"Nothing's going to happen until we're clear on Greece. We won't move that much from here today," said Andrey Kryuchenkov, vice president of commodities research at VTB Capital.
The front-month August Brent contract on London's ICE futures exchange was up 60 cents, or 0.5%, at $106.59 a barrel. The front-month August contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was trading up 28 cents, or 0.3%, at $90.89 a barrel.
Optimism that Greece would approve the package of austerity measures in Wednesday's vote grew this week, aided by a proposal that received the backing of the European Central Bank on Monday for private creditors to roll over as much as €30 billion ($42.86 billion) of Greek government bonds that come due by 2014.
This helped equities and weakened the greenback, which in turn gave oil prices a boost as the dollar-denominated commodity became cheaper for holders of other currencies.
Oil's gains also reflected a rebound from the intense sell-off it underwent in the days since the International Energy Agency's surprise decision last Thursday to release 60 million barrels into the market.
Crude futures fell to four-month lows Monday as investors digested the IEA's decision, but have retraced some of these losses amid uncertainty over the impact of the stock release.
"This is a recovery after a very steep sell-off," said Christopher Bellew, an energy broker at Bache Commodities. "We're miles below where we were at the beginning of June...the knee-jerk reaction was a bit excessive."
The decision to open up the oil reserves has been met with sharp criticism from major oil producers.
OPEC secretary general Abdalla El-Badri's criticism Monday of the IEA's move highlighted concerns that some members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries could cut production in response.
Continued uncertainty and the fact that this week is likely to see light trading volumes—as many U.S. traders take holidays ahead of the July 4 long weekend—mean that the market is likely to remain choppy, analysts said.
The ICE's gasoil contract for July delivery was up $6.50, or 0.7%, at $880 a metric ton, while Nymex gasoline for July delivery was 167 points, or 0.6%, higher at $2.8242 a gallon.
