Oil prices began their first session of the year on Monday, rising, with the two benchmark prices even returning to ten-month highs, ahead of the much-awaited decision by the OPEC+ market on the February production level.

Around 10:30 GMT (11:30 in Paris), the barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in March gained 1.53% in London, to $ 52.59, shortly after touching $ 53.33, a price more seen since March 3, 2020.

The US barrel of WTI for the month of February climbed 1.01% to $ 49.01, after climbing to $ 49.83, flirting with the $ 50 mark that it has not crossed since February 26.

The market has its eyes on the ministerial summit of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their allies via the OPEC+ agreement, which will once again be held by videoconference and whose start time has been brought forward to 13:30 GMT (14:30 in Paris).

At the beginning of December, the countries of the alliance had decided to increase their production, which they voluntarily limit, by only 500,000 barrels per day, to avoid flooding the market with the two million barrels daily initially planned.

This time, "Russia would be inclined to increase production again, but Saudi Arabia would not," according to corridor noises reported by David Madden, an analyst at CMC Markets.

If the cartel and its allies had "paved the way for a gradual return of 2 million barrels per day to the market over the next few months" during the last cycle of meetings, between November 30 and December 3, it stands "ready to adjust these levels according to the conditions and the evolution of the market. "OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo said on Sunday.

Helima Croft, an analyst at RBC, believes that the group of producers "will play it safe" and "will choose to give up any further increase in production for the month of February, as Covid-19 cases continue to rise and the deployment of the vaccine is slower than expected".

The weakness of the dollar also contributed to the support of crude oil prices. The dollar index, which compares the greenback to other major currencies, was trading on Monday at its lowest in two and a half years.