Oil prices extend gains on COVID vaccine hopes

* First Americans could get vaccine by mid Dec-top health
official
* Market eyes OPEC+ meeting at month-end
* Russia's small oil producers struggle with output cuts

By Jessica Jaganathan
SINGAPORE, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Oil prices extended their
gains on Monday as traders were optimistic about a recovery in
crude demand thanks to successful coronavirus vaccine trials,
but price gains were contained by renewed lockdowns in several
countries.
Sentiment was also bolstered by hopes that the Organization
of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and other
producers, a group known as OPEC+, will keep crude output in
check.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 rose 17 cents, or 0.4%, to
$45.13 a barrel by 0039 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate
crude CLc1 gained 4 cents, or 0.1%, to $42.46 a barrel. Both
benchmarks had increased by 5% last week.
"Positive sentiment continues to be driven by the recent
good news about the efficacy of coronavirus vaccines in
development and the expectation that the OPEC+ meeting at the
end of this month could see the group extend current cuts by 3-6
months," said Stephen Innes, Chief Global Markets Strategist at
axi.
U.S. healthcare workers and others recommended that the
nation's first COVID-19 inoculations could start getting shots
within a day or two of regulatory consent next month, a top
official of the government's vaccine development effort said on
Sunday. Dr. Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific adviser for "Operation
Warp Speed", said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
would likely grant approval in mid-December for distribution of
the vaccine produced by Pfizer Inc PFE.N and German partner
BioNTech 22UAy.DE , launching the largest inoculation campaign
in U.S. history.
Elsewhere, OPEC+, which meets on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, is
looking at options to delay by at least three months from
January the tapering of their 7.7 million barrel per day (bpd)
cuts by around 2 million bpd.
But smaller Russian oil companies are still planning to pump
more crude this year despite a global deal to cut production as
they have little leeway in managing the output of start-up
fields, a group representing the producers said on Friday.