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Brent crude rose 82 cents, or 1.9%, to $44.57 a barrel by 1211
GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude gained 76 cents,
or 1.8%, to $42.92.
Both contracts jumped by about $1 after Pfizer Inc said on
Wednesday final results from the late-stage trial of its vaccine
showed it was 95% effective. Last week, it had put the efficacy
at more than 90%.
Moderna Inc said on Monday that preliminary data for its vaccine
also showed it was almost 95% effective.
"Oil prices today are modestly rising on hopes that OPEC+ will
decide to postpone its planned production increase in January
and on the latest vaccine euphoria," said Rystad Energy's head
of oil markets, Bjornar Tonhaugen.
To tackle weaker energy demand amid a second wave of the
pandemic, Saudi Arabia called on fellow members of the OPEC+
group to be flexible to meet market needs and to be ready to
adjust their agreement on output cuts.
OPEC+, comprising the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC), Russia and other producers, met on Tuesday but
made no formal recommendation before the group's full
ministerial meeting on Nov. 30-Dec. 1 to discuss policy.
Members of OPEC+ are leaning towards delaying the current plan
to boost output in January by 2 million barrels per day (bpd),
sources have said. They are considering a possible delay of
three or six months.
Crude prices recovered from an earlier slide after the American
Petroleum Institute (API) said on Tuesday U.S. crude stockpiles
rose by 4.2 million barrels last week. [EIA/S] [API/S].
Official data from the Energy Information Administration data
are due to be released later on Wednesday.
(Additional reporting by Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo; Editing by
David Goodman and Edmund Blair)
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