UPDATE 8-Oil hits highest since March on vaccine trials, Biden transition

* Biden transition given formal nod
* OPEC experts meet ahead of next week's ministerial
gathering
* U.S. crude stocks seen up 127,000 bbls last week - poll
* Coming Up: API inventory report at 4:30 p.m. ET/2130 GMT

(Updates prices and market activity; adds analyst comments,
U.S. inventory forecasts; changes byline, dateline, previous
LONDON)
By Laila Kearney
NEW YORK, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Oil rose more than $1 a barrel
to its highest levels since March as a third promising
coronavirus vaccine raised hope for fuel demand recovery and
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden began his transition to the White
House.
Brent crude LCOc1 rose $1.65, or 3.6%, to $47.22 a barrel
by 11:34 a.m. EST (1634 GMT), to $47.71 a barrel. U.S. West
Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 gained $1.89, or 4.4%, to $44.95
a barrel. Both benchmarks reached their highest since March 6.
AstraZeneca AZN.L on Monday said that its COVID-19 vaccine
was 70% effective in trials and could be up to 90% effective,
giving the fight against the pandemic another potential vaccine
after positive results from Pfizer-BioNTech PFE.N 22UAy.DE
and Moderna MRNA.O .
"The possibility of having a vaccine next year increases the
odds that we're going to see demand return in the new year,"
said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group in
Chicago.
The coronavirus pandemic, coupled with the collapse of an
OPEC-led output pact, sent prices crashing in March.
After the collapse of that output pact led to a brief Saudi
Arabia-Russia price war, the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries and allies agreed a new deal on record
production cuts to support prices.
The group known as OPEC+ is expected to roll over those cuts
into 2021 after a meeting over Nov. 30 to Dec. 1 following
technical talks this week. In addition, the Trump administration gave Democrat Joseph
Biden access to resources that will enable him to take over in
January after delaying for weeks despite Trump's loss in the
Nov. 3 presidential election. The first of this week's U.S. supply reports is due at 4:30
p.m. EST (2130 GMT) from the American Petroleum Institute.
U.S. crude oil inventories are seen rising slightly last
week, while distillate stockpiles likely declined for the 10th
straight week, an extended Reuters poll showed. EIA/S

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Brent crude oil prices hit their highest since March as hopes
for a vaccine roll out spur hopes of a recovery in oil demand
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