WTI crude oil prices are on the rise at the beginning of a brand new trading week as traders focused on improvement in oil demand once the vaccines roll out, even though the likelihood of more lockdowns keeps gains in check. At the time of writing, WTI crude oil is trading at around $42.48 per barrel.

Crude oil is also trading bullish amid rising hopes for OPEC and allies to extend deeper production curbs beyond the current deadline at the end of the year and into 2021 in the wake of the second wave of the pandemic underway. The positive market sentiment had helped oil prices strengthen by around 5% in the previous week, and is continuing into early trading on Monday.

A senior government official in the US stated that healthcare workers in the US could start receiving the vaccine soon after regulatory authorities approve the use of the vaccine in the country within a month. According to chief scientific adviser for “Operation Warp Speed”, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the US FDA could grant approval for Pfizer’s vaccine by as soon as mid-December.

Meanwhile, OPEC+ nations are scheduled to conduct their meetings on November 30 and December 1, and are widely expected to put off their decision to increase crude supply by 2 million bpd starting January 2021. Traders are hoping that leading oil producing countries could delay this decision and extend deeper supply cuts of 7.7 million bpd by another three months.