Oil Prices Rally after Pfizer Vaccines Gets U.S Full Approval

Oil Prices Rally after Pfizer Vaccines Gets U.S Full Approval

Oil prices rally on Tuesday after the United States (U.S) health authority granted full approval of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, raising optimism for a faster economic rebound and a resumption of fuel demand in the country.

International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $68.76 per barrel, gained 0.57% from $68.37 a barrel on Monday. Last week, Brent singularly shed about 10% of its opening price.

Also, the American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was traded at $65.95 a barrel at the same time with a 0.47% increase after ending the previous session at $65.64 per barrel.

The boost in prices came as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, nine months after it rolled off the assembly lines under special emergency use authorization.

The approval was widely expected and could lead to more workplaces, universities, restaurants, gyms, and entertainment venues requiring full vaccination – a step experts say will increase mobility and thus help a speedier return of fuel demand in the world’s largest oil-consuming country.

Supporting the prices, India’s domestic oil production fell 3.78% in July compared to the same month last year. However, the country’s gas production increased by 18.36% in July, according to the monthly production report of the country’s ministry of petroleum and natural gas.

The United States could get COVID-19 under control by early next year if vaccinations ramp up, Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday, one day after Pfizer PFE won fuller FDA approval for its shot, with more potential approvals coming in the weeks ahead.

Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said in multiple television interviews that full Food and Drug Administration approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine paves the way for more people to get inoculated, with potential approval for Moderna Inc’s mRNA and Johnson & Johnson’s JNJ vaccines in coming weeks and approval for young children possibly this fall.

“If we get the overwhelming majority of those 80 to 90 million people who have not yet been vaccinated, who have been reluctant to get vaccinated or have not had the opportunity, I believe we can see light at the end of the tunnel,” he told NBC’s “Today” program.

“We can turn this thing around,” he told MSNBC.

Fauci, head of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told MSNBC he expects Moderna and Johnson & Johnson to secure full FDA approval “relatively soon,” possibly within several weeks to one month.

“I think there’s a reasonable chance” that Pfizer or Moderna could get FDA approval for younger children before the upcoming holiday season, he told NBC News. “Hopefully by the mid-late fall and early winter.”

National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, however, in a separate interview on National Public Radio, said he did not expect approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot for children under age 12 until the end of 2021. Pfizer must still submit its data, and the FDA will make the final decision.

The United States is battling another wave of cases as the highly contagious Delta variant takes hold, with infections rising to 147,420 new reported daily infections on average. Hospitalizations and deaths are also rising, particularly in Florida, Texas and other parts of the U.S. South.

U.S. health officials have also noted the number of inoculations has also risen in recent weeks and say they hope Monday’s FDA action spurs more people to get their first shots.

Pfizer and its partner BioNTech BNTX secured full FDA approval on Monday. Moderna and J&J’s vaccines remain authorized under FDA emergency use authorization, although Moderna has filed for full approval.

U.S. health officials expect full FDA approval will spur more state and local governments, as well as private employers and other entities, to mandate COVID vaccines. That, combined with some vaccine sceptics potentially being won over by the FDA’s fuller approval, could help turn the tide, said Fauci, who along with other top Biden administration health officials will hold a press briefing.

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Oil Prices Rally after Pfizer Vaccines Gets U.S Full Approval