Oil gains on hopes that easing of coronavirus curbs will trigger demand boost

Brent crude was up 47 cents, or 1.5%, at $29.33 a barrel by 0121 GMT, having fallen nearly 1% on Thursday.

Reuters

May 08, 2020 / 08:29 IST

Oil prices rose on Friday as more countries began easing lockdowns set in place to stop the coronavirus spreading, giving hope that demand for fuels will pick up after the economic devastation caused by the pandemic.

Brent crude was up 47 cents, or 1.5%, at $29.33 a barrel by 0121 GMT, having fallen nearly 1% on Thursday.

U.S. oil gained 48 cents, or 1.5%, to $24.03 a barrel, after a decline of nearly 2% in the previous session.

Both contracts are heading for a second week of gains after the depths plumbed in April, when U.S. oil crashed below zero. But crude is still being pumped into storage tanks on land and tankers at sea, raising the prospect that gains prompted by stronger demand will be capped.

"Even with the early signs that demand is beginning to stabilise, inventory builds are likely to continue for some time, and storage capacity (usage) continues to creep up," said Stephen Innes, chief market strategist at AxiCorp.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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