Oil prices moved in a jagged fashion on Tuesday to finish in scattered order, as investors remained alert to the spread of Covid-19 and the restrictions put in place around the world, pending a recovery in demand with the arrival of vaccines.

The barrel of North Sea Brent for delivery in February gained 0.10% or 5 cents from Monday's close at $48.84.

In New York, the US barrel of WTI for the month of January dropped 0.3% or 16 cents to 45.60 dollars.

These price levels are however quite high for 2020, brent not remaining so far from the symbolic mark of $ 50 a barrel that it came close to Friday, at $ 49.92, a first since March 6.

"Oil is technically still on an uptrend and to reach the next level, it will need the help of U.S. refiners," whose pace is expected to accelerate, said Phil Flynn of Price Futures Group, on the eve of the weekly release of U.S. crude inventories on Wednesday.

According to average analyst estimates, U.S. oil inventories are expected to show a decline of 1.2 million barrels and refinery utilization capacity to increase by 0.6 percent to 78.8 percent.

Crude oil prices remained torn "between the immediate gloom and the perception of a better future", said Tamas Varga, analyst at PVM, stressing that Covid-19 "continues to spread", a serious threat to demand and storage capacity in the very short term.

Despite the prospects offered by the massive vaccination campaigns against Covid-19, the current situation remains worrying, particularly in the United States.

More than 20 million people living in Southern California, for example, have been under lockdown again since Monday to ease the pressure on hospitals.

Avtar Sandu, of Phillip Futures, also points to "the intensification of tensions between the United States and China" as a factor in the decline in crude prices as the United States announced new sanctions against Beijing on Monday.