On Tuesday, Brent crude prices hit the highest level since March on the back of optimism regarding the coronavirus vaccine developments and the green light for the US President-elect Joe Biden to start his leadership transition.
By 07.44 GMT, Brent crude oil futures climbed by 1% or 45 cents to USD46.5/barrel after touching USD46.72/barrel earlier, the highest since March before the oil price war. The US WTI crude jumped by 1.1% or 46 cents to USD43.52/barrel.
The optimism on vaccine developments soared after AstraZeneca said on Monday its coronavirus vaccine was 70% effective in pivotal trials and could be up to 90% effective. This development followed the positive trial results from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
Also supporting oil prices was the permit from US President Donald Trump for Joe Biden to start the transition to the next administration.
Moreover, a preliminary Reuters poll predicted that in the week ended November 20, US crude oil stockpiles declined and the distillate inventories slumped for a tenth consecutive week.
Looking ahead, the oil markets are keeping a close look at the planned technical meetings of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its non-member oil producer allies (OPEC+) next week. OPEC+ is scheduled to negotiate the oil output cut pact, where analysts predicted the alliance to extend the current level of an output cut.
