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

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

"Saudi Arabia's decision to unilaterally reduce by an additional one million barrels per day (its production) continues to support the upward movement, while the deployment of vaccines reassures about the outlook for future demand," Wilson said. Markets.com analyst.

At the end of the first summit of the year of the members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their partners on Tuesday, the Saudi leader announced a voluntary cut, out of 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 for 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, begin to translate 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 one million people in the European Union have received a dose of Covid-19 vaccine, according to a report by AFP. In the United States, just under 6 million people received their first injection.

The victory of the Democrats on Wednesday in two by-elections in Georgia (South), thus granting control of the AMEan Throne to President-elect Joe Biden, was also likely to support crude oil prices, as well as data published the same day by the United States Agency. Energy Information (EIA) which showed a significant decline in commercial crude inventories in the country last week.