On Monday, December 14, London ICE Brent crude futures for February delivery exceeded $50 a barrel. The price of the benchmark crude reached $50.05 a barrel on Monday afternoon. US West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery settled at $46.7 a barrel.

Notably, Brent surged above $50 a barrel for the first time since March 5 of this year. The benchmark crude plunged amid the coronavirus pandemic and after talks between OPEC and its allies collapsed. WTI and Russia's Urals crude dropped as well.

The bullish sentiment was driven by positive news about the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), US crude oil inventories swelled by 3.1% to 503.2 million barrels in the week ending December 4. The figure exceeded analysts’ forecast of a 0.7 million bpd contraction.

According to Sofya Donets, chief economist at Renaissance Capital, oil prices are likely to remain around $50 a barrel in 2021, fueled by the global economic and traffic recovery.

Besides, OPEC and its partners have agreed to boost crude oil production by 0.5 million barrels to 7.2 million barrels per day from January next year. Experts consider it to be another driver of higher oil prices.