Crude oil kept pushing ahead on Tuesday in thin trading, in a tight tug war between bulls and technical resistance lines.

Brent oil was last at $49.29 a barrel, a few cents above its closing price on Monday.

U.S. oil eased a bit, it was last trading at $46.06 a barrel.

Oil prices lost more than half their value since June 2014, affected by a persistent supply glut and lowering demand from China and other countries.

Russia and Persian Gulf states are pumping record amounts of oil despite the price rout, with the anticipated Iranian reentry into the market after its nuclear dear with the world powers further unnerving the markets. With more oil supply to come, and stunted demand growth worldwide, the oil prices aren't expected to recover to its past highs any time soon.

In other news, spot gold traded at $1,136.80 an ounce as of 9:16 GMT, down $1.30 from Monday, or 0.11%, it rose 2.06% last Friday after the weak U.S. jobs report.

Gold lost more than 35 % of its value in the last three years amid a general commodities sell-off and lower demand for the precious metal, specially in India and China, which together account for about half the global demand for gold.

In gold-related news, it was announced that the south African bullion company AngloGold is under threat for relegation from the top tier stock index in South Africa after it lost three quarters of its value in the recent price rout, AngloGold is the last gold mining company in the blue chip index, after other companies in the sector fell off earlier, South Africa is a historically major gold producer , it accounts for a third of all gold ever mined. The news further express the woes of the gold sector around the world, specially in producer countries, a story repeated across the whole commodity sector.