Oil soared on Friday and was above $ 50 for Brent’s first time since March. Coronavirus vaccination practices strengthened hopes that crude oil demand will increase next year. Promising vaccine trials have helped to calm down the gloom of new infections as well as the record increases in the number of deaths in the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.
Brent was up 11 cents or 0.2% at $50.36 a barrel by 0427 GMT, after gaining nearly 3% on Thursday. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil was up 14 cents, or 0.3%, at $46.92 a barrel, having also risen almost 3% in the previous session.
Britain started vaccinations this week and the United States could begin vaccinations next weekend, while Canada stated on Wednesday that vaccination will begin next week.
The large increase in US crude inventories reminded that there is still ample supply oversupply, but this did not have a very negative impact on the stock market this week.
The upcoming lockdowns across the US and potential blows to crude oil demand seem to be compensated by the improvement of trends in Brazil, the UK and much of Asia.
Signs of strong Asian demand are encouraging the market, with India’s largest refinery reporting that for the first time since the beginning of this year all nine units are operating at 100% capacity.
With the economic recovery of Asia, the Chinese and Indian refineries need more oil processing. Expectations that demand will increase in anticipation of the FDA’s potential approval for Pfizer’s vaccine have risen and crude oil prices are rising.
