NEW YORK: Oil prices rose around three per cent on Thursday, buoyed by hopesofabreakthroughin looming trade talks between the United States and China, the world`s two largest oil consumers.

Brent crude futures were up $1.70, or 2.8pc, at $62.82 a barrel at 1:12pm EDT (1712 GMT). US West Texas Intermediate crude rose $1.79, or 3.1pc, to $59.86.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will meet with China`s top economic official on May 10 in Switzerland for negotiations over a trade war that is disrupting the global economy. Optimism around those talks was providing support to the market, said SEB analyst Ole Hvalbye.

The countries are the world`s two largest economies and the fallout from their trade dispute was likely to lower crude consumption growth. Analysts cautioned that the recent tariff-driven volatility in the oil market was not over.

`The global risk premium that was pushing oil prices up and down during the past couple of years has been replaced by a tariff premium that will also be fluctuating in response to the latest headlines out of the Trump administration,` Jim Ritterbusch, of US energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates, said in a note.-Reuters