Oil prices rose on Monday as the slow return of US crude output cut by frigid conditions served as a reminder that the supply situation was tight, just as demand recovers from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. Brent crude was up 55 cents, or 0.9%, at $63.46 a barrel by 0742 GMT, after gaining nearly 1% last week. US oil rose 47 cents, or 0.8%, to $59.71 a barrel, having fallen 0.4% last week. Prices also received a boost after investment bank Goldman Sachs raised Brent its price forecast by $10, with expectations for it to reach $70 by the second quarter and $75 in the third quarter. “We now forecast that oil prices will rally sooner and higher, driven by lower expected inventories and higher marginal costs – at least in the short run – to restart upstream activity,” Goldman analysts wrote. “Better than expected demand and still depressed supply once again creating a larger deficit than even we expected,” they said. Abnormally cold weather in Texas and the Plains states forced the shutdown of up to 4 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude production along with 21 billion cubic feet of natural gas output, analysts estimated.