Oil prices gave up some ground on Thursday, after hitting new eight-and-a-half-month highs the day before, as OPEC+ ministers' meetings loom on Monday and next Tuesday.

Around 10:50 a.m. GMT (11:50 a.m. in Paris), a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in January lost 1.13% compared to Wednesday's close, at 48.06 dollars.

In New York, the American barrel of WTI for the same term yielded 1.23% to 45.15 dollars.

WTI hit $46.26 a barrel during US trading on Wednesday, a level not seen since March 6. Brent for its part waited a few hours before reaching a new record since that date, at 49.09 dollars a barrel during the Asian session.

Despite this morning's declines, the two benchmark prices still show a 25% increase since the beginning of November.

“The market seems to be looking past the current phase of low demand due to the pandemic”, with high prices being “mainly due to hopes of economic recovery”, explained Eugen Weinberg, analyst at Commerzbank, fed by the progress of the laboratories. pharmaceuticals on a vaccine against Covid-19.

The analyst also highlights "significantly higher risk appetite given the rise in stock markets and the weakness of the US dollar."

Investors are now focused on the upcoming summit of members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their OPEC+ allies who meet early next week to decide on the production cut agreement that will 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 experts are counting on a postponement of three to six months.

Thursday's session will also be shortened due to Thanksgiving, a public holiday in the United States.