Crude-oil futures rose more than 2% on Tuesday, as some optimism about curtailing output seemed to permeate markets and ahead of a fresh weekly report on stockpiles.

Light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March rose $1.08, or 2.4%, to settle at $46.23 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement snapped a three-day losing streak. Prices had weaved in and out of the red earlier in the day, trading as low as $44.81 a barrel and as high as $46.55 a barrel. Brent crude for March delivery added $1.44, or 3%, to $49.60 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Exchange. Futures earlier hit an intraday low at $47.67 a barrel, and traded as high as $49.99 a barrel. Traders digested comments from key Middle Eastern oil officials in recent days, including a statement Tuesday from Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Khalid al-Falih that Saudi Arabia would not be able to balance crude markets alone.

On Monday, Abdallah el-Badri, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ secretary-general, said oil at $200 a barrel would be possible if producers don’t invest in new supply, and prices around $45 a barrel to $55 a barrel are likely the bottom for crude. El-Badri, however, also stated OPEC is likely to stand by its decision to keep output the same. Such statements were viewed by some traders as an olive branch of sorts, said Carl Larry, a consultant at Frost & Sullivan in Houston. “There’s a bit more optimism in the markets based on the idea the Saudis may be doing something perhaps soon,” Larry said. “Not a definite sign, but a hopeful sign.”

Markets were also operating on a quasi-holiday, he said, with many traders in the East Coast home-bound because of a powerful winter storm blanketing the Northeast. The storm fell short of most of the dire predictions for some areas, but officials had advised people in the affected areas to hunker down at home. The gains also came before the American Petroleum Institute’s weekly U.S. oil inventory data, due at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. That report comes a day ahead of more closely watched data from the Energy Information Administration. Analysts polled by Platts expect commercial crude stocks to have risen 3.5 million barrels during the week ended Jan. 23. That would match a five-year average as tracked by the Energy Information Administration. The global oil surplus and resulting accumulation of inventories are still bearish for prices, and limit the potential for a recovery, with new lows a possibility, analyst Tim Evans at Citi Futures said in a note.

Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn said Monday on CNBC that oil prices could drop as low at $30 a barrel.