Oil prices steadied on Friday, and were set for a sixth week of gains as progress towards the novel coronavirus vaccination programmes fed hopes that demand for fuel would rebound next year.

Brent was down 7 cents, or 0.1 per cent, at $50.18 a barrel at 1418GMT, after rising above $51 a barrel on Thursday to an early-March high.

US oil was up 4 cents, or 0.1 per cent, at $46.82 a barrel, having risen almost 3 per cent in the previous session.

Promising vaccine trials have helped lift some gloom over record increases in the number of new coronavirus infections and deaths. Britain began inoculations this week and the US could start vaccinations in the coming weekend.

“The optimism seems to continue unscathed because of the back-to-back approvals vaccines are getting and the quicker-than-thought rollout of the first campaigns in key markets,” Rystad Energy analyst Paola Rodriguez-Masiu said.

A big jump in US crude stockpiles last week served as a reminder that there is still plenty of supply available, but it was all but ignored as bulls ran through the market this week.