Oil prices up two per cent following US sanctions on Venezuela timesnownews.com

Oil prices gained more than 2 percent on Tuesday after the United States imposed sanctions on state-owned Venezuelan oil company PDVSA, a move likely to reduce the OPEC member's crude exports and relieve some global oversupply worries.International Brent crude oil futures were up $1.39 to settle at $61.32 a barrel, a 2.32 percent rise, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures increased $1.32, or 2.54 percent, to settle at $53.31 a barrel. Venezuela is among the world's largest heavy crude oil producers, and the United States has been its biggest client, taking about half the country's export volumes.