Global oil prices are rising Monday morning amid traders' expectations that the COVID-19 vaccine will help bring the pandemic under control. Optimism about success in developing the drug and the hope that it will support the recovery in demand for raw materials led to an increase in the oil prices in November by almost 20%.

By Monday noon, the price of February futures for the North Sea Brent oil mix rose above $46 per barrel for the first time since September 2. January Brent futures increased by 1.47% to $45.63 per barrel, which is $0.22 (0.49%) higher than the closing price of the previous session. January WTI crude futures rose 1.74% to $43.16 per barrel.

Recall that on Friday, the American pharmaceutical Corporation Pfizer and the German company BioNTech filed a request to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to obtain permission for the emergency use of a vaccine against coronavirus infection. In response, Moncef Slaoui, the head of the US government vaccination program, said that the use of the drug could begin as early as December 11-12.

The rapid reaction of market participants to promising news about the vaccine is quite understandable because the number of new cases of COVID-19 in the US in November is almost 110,000 per day higher than last month. Meanwhile, Hong Kong and Singapore postponed a plan to resume free flights between the cities for 14 days due to a spike in infections in Hong Kong. In addition, experts regret to say that the situation with coronavirus in Europe, America, and Asia is likely to worsen in the near future.

However, investors prefer not to think about the bad and continue to believe in the instant effect of the vaccine. In addition, the positive mood of oil market participants is supported by expectations that at the end of this month, OPEC+ will extend the previously accepted cuts for a quarter or half a year.

In mid-November, the OPEC+ Ministerial Monitoring Committee discussed the situation on the oil market against the background of the second wave of COVID-19. No decisions were made on the results, although the organization's experts had previously recommended that Ministers consider maintaining the current oil production restrictions for the first 3-6 months of 2021. The Committee promised to respond to this question by the next meeting of the Alliance, scheduled for December 1.

In addition, bidders are concerned about the state of affairs in Saudi Arabia. Earlier, the media reported that a representative of the Yemeni military insurgents from the Houthi movement announced a rocket attack on the distribution station of the state oil and gas company Saudi Aramco.