NEW YORK, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices moved higher on Friday as traders remained confident about the demand outlook despite a resurgence in COVID-19 infections.

The West Texas Intermediate for September delivery added 33 cents to settle at 73.95 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for September delivery increased 28 cents to close at 76.33 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

"Despite the numbers of new cases remaining at a high level, the oil market no longer appears to be viewing the issue of the Delta variant with quite the same alarm as it was at the beginning of last week," Carsten Fritsch, energy analyst at Commerzbank Research, said in a note on Friday.

"Most forecasts are still predicting robust growth in demand in the second half of the year. It is easy to believe that the oil market has learnt to live with the virus, in other words," he said.

Oil prices also garnered some support from a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. fuel stockpiles.

U.S. crude oil inventories decreased by 4.1 million barrels during the week ending July 23, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report on Wednesday. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts had estimated the U.S. crude inventories to show a fall of 2.5 million barrels.

According to the EIA, total motor gasoline inventories dropped 2.3 million barrels last week, while distillate fuel inventories fell by 3.1 million barrels.

For the week, the U.S. crude benchmark rose 2.6 percent, while Brent climbed 3 percent, based on the front-month contracts. Enditem

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