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The
United States began vaccinating people on Monday as the
country's COVID-19 death toll crossed 300,000. Britain and
Canada have also begun to administer shots.
Brent crude rose 20 cents, or 0.4% to $50.49 a barrel at 1310
GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 16 cents at
$47.15.
Oil has recovered in the past few weeks, with Brent reaching
$51.06 on Dec.10, its highest since March, supported by hopes of
demand recovery. Prices had dropped to historic lows in March as
the pandemic took hold.
"Brent is continuing to defy all the negative news," said
Carsten Fritsch, analyst at Commerzbank. "More and more
countries in Europe and states in the U.S. are tightening the
corona restrictions over Christmas and the new year, which is
likely to weigh on demand."
London stepped up pandemic restrictions requiring bars and
restaurants to close, Italy is considering more stringent steps
over Christmas and Germany is likely to be under lockdown until
early 2021.
Forecasters are also trimming demand numbers. The International
Energy Agency on Tuesday said that any vaccine impact on demand
is several months away. OPEC on Monday had said oil demand will
rise more slowly than expected. [IEA/M] [OPEC/M]
"There is a growing agreement between forecasting agencies that
the improvement in global oil demand might not start at the
beginning of next year but in the second half," said Tamas Varga
of oil broker PVM.
The latest snapshots of U.S. oil supplies are expected to show a
mixed picture, with gasoline and distillate stocks rising and
crude inventories falling. [EIA/S]
The first of this week's two U.S. inventory reports, from the
American Petroleum Institute, is due at 2130 GMT.
(Additional reporting by Sonali Paul and Shu Zhang; Editing by
Louise Heavens and Jane Merriman)
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