U. S. crude oil futures ended higher on Monday on economic recovery hopes, but pared gains near the close as Wall Street trimmed its intraday highs. U. S. natural gas futures traded up to about 5 percent on Monday on the back of a technical buying after making lows on demand and high inventory concerns.

The U. S. National Hurricane Center said it was still monitoring disorganized showers associated with a tropical wave in the western Atlantic Ocean and now gave the system a medium chance -- 30 to 50 percent -- of becoming a tropical cyclone during the next 48 hours.

China's implied oil demand rose 3.5 percent in July from a year earlier, in its fourth consecutive rise, as refiners ramped up production.

U. S. crude oil inventories fell last week as imports remained low and refinery utilization edged higher, a preliminary poll of nine industry analysts showed on Monday, ahead of weekly industry and government inventory reports.

Russian Urals held its level on Monday after a Siberian oil reservoir caught fire on Saturday, burning up to 10,000 tonnes of crude but leaving a pipeline through to oil port Primorsk apparently undamaged.

Crude oil prices may witness profit taking in today’s trading session as on fundamentals side there hasn’t been much improvement in demand. This may trigger some sell off during the day, where as Natural Gas prices may move up as expiry on NYMEX is on 27th August. So some short covering cannot be ruled out.