Brent ends on a jump of 3.90% to 47.86 dollars and WTI ends on a flight of more than 4% to 44.91 dollars.

Oil prices ended sharply higher on Tuesday, with Brent and WTI even returning to their level of almost nine months ago before the COVID-19 epidemic completely clouded the outlook for oil demand.

The possible rebound in demand for crude on hopes of coronavirus vaccines has buoyed investor morale, as has Donald Trump's green light for a political transition with President-elect Joe Biden's team.

The North Sea Brent crude contract for January delivery gained $1.80 or 3.90% to $47.86.

In New York, the US barrel of WTI for December ended up $1.85, or 4.29%, at $44.91.

You have to go back to March 6 to find equivalent prices.

"Having the price of Brent above $46 a barrel is a sign of confidence not seen since COVID-19 began to break market sentiment in the first part of the year," he said. summary Louise Dickson of Rystad Energy.

“Vaccine news has been very supportive of oil prices and the AstraZeneca/Oxford announcement (Monday) lifted prices above their previous late summer highs,” said analyst Craig Erlam. from Oanda.

The AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna laboratories have reported good effectiveness of their respective future vaccine against COVID-19.

“Having three successful vaccine trials and pending authorization applications as well as statements that vaccination campaigns could start earlier than planned, gives hope that as we approach 2021 we will come out of this. cycle of destruction of the demand for oil of the last quarter”, underlined Louise Dickson, adding moreover that “the question is to know what OPEC + will do in January”.

Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their OPEC+ allies are meeting early next week to decide on the production cut agreement that binds them.

According to him, the current withdrawal from the market of 7.7 million barrels per day must be reduced to 5.8 million from January 2021 but many market observers expect a postponement of three to six months.

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.