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Covid-19 vaccine news has affected oil prices positively 

November 25, 2020 at 4:03 pm

A health worker, wearing a protective suit as a measure against the coronavirus (COVID-19), holds syringe during a process to develop a vaccine in a lab in Ankara, Turkey on 12 October 2020 [Ministry of Health of Turkey/Anadolu Agency]

Oil prices have edged up to hit the highest level since March as encouraging news about a third Covid-19 vaccine created hopes of a swift recovery in fuel demand, Reuters has reported. Saudi Arabia announced a price war with Russia in March, resulting in prices crashing.

Both the Brent and the WTI benchmarks settled up at two per cent on 23 November after rising five per cent last week.

“Progress on developing and distributing a vaccine de-risks the path back to normal for oil markets,” said Stephen Innes, the chief global markets strategist for financial services firm Axi.

Last week, Bloomberg reported that oil markets may take advantage of the prospects of a coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech in order to stabilise.

According to a report by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the world’s top 12 publicly-traded oil-producing companies posted a total net loss of more than $20 billion in the first quarter of 2020 as the spread of the coronavirus Covdi-19 brought global transportation to an almost complete standstill. Low demand pushed crude oil prices down in April to their lowest level since 1999.

READ: Over $27bn in loses in Saudi due to oil price crash