
Oil prices were up on Friday, extending an overnight rally, with Brent crude crossing $50 a barrel for the first time since March while WTI crude hovering around $47 a barrel, amid hopes that global crude demand would recover next year as vaccine momentum intensified.
Reuters reported that the US could start vaccinations as early as the coming weekend while Canada, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia have approved their first vaccines and the UK has begun distributing the vaccine earlier this week.
Sentiment was also supported by reports that India’s biggest refiner was operating at 100% capacity for the first time since early this year.
Limiting the rise was EIA data showing a surprise build in US crude inventories of 15.189 million barrels last week, the largest rise since a record in April.