Oil prices amplify gains on COVID vaccine hopes and Middle East tensions By Reuters

By Jessica Jaganathan

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil prices rose 1% on Monday, amplifying gains as traders saw a recovery in demand for crude due to successful trials of the coronavirus vaccine and concerns about tensions. in the Middle East.

Sentiment was also bolstered by hopes that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and other producers, a group known as OPEC +, will continue to restrict production.

Futures rose 63 cents, or 1.4%, to $ 45.59 a barrel at 0733 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude gained 49 cents, or 1.2%, to 42 , $ 91 a barrel. Both benchmarks were up 5% last week.

“Positive sentiment continues to be fueled by recent good news on the efficacy of developing coronavirus vaccines and the expectation that the OPEC + meeting later this month could see the group extend current cuts of 3 to 6 months, “said Stephen Innes. , Chief Global Markets Strategist at axi, a financial services firm.

British pharmacist AstraZeneca (NASDAQ 🙂 said on Monday that its vaccine for the novel coronavirus, developed in conjunction with the University of Oxford, could be around 90% effective under a dosing regimen.

U.S. healthcare workers and others recommended that the country’s first COVID-19 vaccines could begin receiving injections within a day or two after regulatory consent next month, a senior effort official said Sunday. government vaccine development agency.

OPEC +, which meets on November 30 and December 1, is looking for options to delay at least three months from January reducing its 7.7 million barrels per day (bpd) cuts by around 2 million bpd.

But smaller Russian oil companies still plan to pump more crude this year despite a global agreement to cut production, as they have little leeway to manage output from start-up fields, a group said on Friday that represents the producers.

Yemen’s Houthi group, aligned with Iran, said on Monday it fired a missile that hit a distribution station operated by the Saudi Aramco (SE 🙂 oil company in the city of Jeddah in the Red Sea of ​​Saudi Arabia.

There was no immediate Saudi confirmation of the claim made by the group’s military spokesman. Aramco’s oil production and export facilities are primarily located in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia, more than 1,000 km across the country from Jeddah.