Brent ended up 1.6% at $48.61 and WTI ended up 1.8% at $45.71.

Oil prices ended at their highest in eight months on Wednesday, buoyed by an unexpected drop in commercial crude inventories in the United States, the hope of vaccines against the coronavirus and a certain enthusiasm before the next summit of OPEC +.

A barrel of North Sea Brent crude for January delivery gained 1.6% or 75 cents from Tuesday's close of $48.61.

In New York, the US barrel of WTI for the same month gained 1.8% or 80 cents to 45.71 dollars.

You have to go back to the beginning of March to find prices equivalent to the close.

According to weekly data from the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) released on Wednesday, commercial crude reserves fell by 800,000 barrels as of November 20, to 488.7 million barrels (MB ), where experts were anticipating a median increase of 225,000 barrels.

In addition to this surprise drop in US crude inventories, which supported prices, "two main factors are behind the surge in oil prices in recent weeks: first, the positive evolution (in the development , note) of vaccines, then the prospect of an extension of the current cuts on the part of OPEC +”, explains Carlo Alberto de Casa, analyst of Activtrades.

The AstraZeneca, Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna laboratories have announced in recent weeks the high efficiency of their candidate vaccines against Covid-19, a real lifeline for the demand for black gold.

In addition, members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their OPEC+ allies are meeting at the beginning of next week to decide on the production reduction 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.

According to several analysts, the green light from the Trump administration for the political transition with the team of President-elect Joe Biden is also contributing to the rise in crude prices.

However, “despite the good news on the vaccine front and the hope that the Biden administration will want to adopt significant fiscal stimulus, which should benefit demand in the United States and around the world, the oil consumption should remain lackluster in the coming months due to the impact of the second wave of coronavirus,” said Bart Melek of TD Securities.

In this regard, the sharp rise in gasoline stocks in the United States last week shows that demand remains at half mast at a time when consumption usually reaches high levels with the end of year holidays.