Nothing seemed to slow oil prices yesterday, in the final stretch of a week marked by the announcement, by OPEP+ members, of a contained supply and the prospect of a solid return in demand thanks to vaccination campaigns against Covid-19.

Around 13:30 GMT, a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in March gained 1.40% in London compared with the previous day's close, at $55.14, a price that has not been seen since February 26, 2020. For its part, the American barrel of WTI (West Texas Intermediate) for the month of February climbed 1.18% to 51.43 dollars, its highest since February.

“Saudi Arabia's decision to unilaterally cut an additional 1 million barrels per day (its production) continues to support the bullish movement, while the deployment of vaccines reassures the prospects for future demand,” said Neil Wilson, Markets.com analyst.

At the end of the first summit of the year between members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their partners on Tuesday, the Saudi leader announced a voluntary cut, outside the current agreement, of one million barrels per day in February and March.

The production of the other countries will remain unchanged over the period, except Russia and Kazakhstan, which will increase theirs, but at the margin. And the first vaccine announcements in early November, light at the end of the tunnel for oil producers, are beginning to be translated into real vaccination campaigns.

In the United Kingdom, for example, nearly 1.5 million people have already been vaccinated since the beginning of December and more than a million inhabitants of the European Union have received a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to a report prepared by AFP. In the United States, just under 6 million people received a first injection.

The victory of the Democrats on Wednesday in two by-elections in Georgia (South), thus giving control of the US Senate to President-elect Joe Biden, was also likely to support crude oil prices, as was the data published the same day by the American Energy Information Agency (EIA) which showed a significant drop in commercial stocks of Gross in the country last week.