Oil prices gained ground again on Tuesday, with Brent even hitting an eight-and-a-half-month high, driven by prospects for a rebound in demand for crude.

Around 10:35 a.m. GMT (11:35 a.m. in Paris), a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in January gained 0.96% compared to Friday's close, at 46.50 dollars.

In New York, the US barrel of WTI for the same month climbed 1.11% to 43.54 dollars.

Brent crude hit $46.72 a barrel earlier in the day, a price not seen since March 6. WTI meanwhile stopped at $43.74 a barrel, just 4 cents off its previous high on Aug. 26.

“We now know that we will be able to control Covid-19 and this finding raises enormous uncertainty in the markets”, explained Bjarne Schieldrop, analyst at Seb.

Hopes for massive vaccination campaigns against Covid-19, which should begin before the end of the year, were reinforced on Monday morning by the announcement of the British laboratory AstraZeneca .

"Although global oil demand is still well below 2019 levels, the path to the next rebound is now clear to everyone and financial markets are adjusting prices accordingly," Schieldrop added.

On the supply side, "the prospect of an agreement at next week's meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their allies" is also supporting prices, said Eugen Weinberg of Commerzbank . .

According to the current OPEC+ agreement, the current market withdrawal of 7.7 million barrels per day must be reduced to 5.8 million from January 2021.

But many market observers are now counting on a postponement of three to six months, which will probably be acted on the occasion of the next summit of the cartel and its partners on November 30 and December 1.

Separately, oil giant Saudi Aramco said on Tuesday that a strike by Yemen's Houthi rebels on its factory in Jeddah ripped a "big hole" in the roof of an oil tank, triggering an explosion and a fire that was quickly extinguished.

In September 2019, attacks on Aramco facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia caused extensive damage, temporarily halved the country's oil production and sent crude prices into a fever pitch.