Oil prices have achieved 4% gains during the past week, as the market is waiting the next steps of the OPEC+ group and the impact of the mutant Omicron.<\/p>\n
By 0741 GMT, Brent crude futures fell 41 cents, or 0.5%, to $76.44 a barrel, after rising 2.1% in the previous session.<\/p>\n
Oil prices rose from the easing of investor fears regarding Omicron, which worries the world.<\/p>\n
The OPEC+ bloc (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies) will meet on January 4.<\/p>\n
The group is likely to maintain its decision to increase oil supply by 400,000 barrels per day at its next meeting, as long as oil prices remain above $ 70 a barrel, said Chiyuki Chen, chief analyst at Sunward Trading.<\/p>\n
“But investors remained cautious amid surging infection cases,” said Hiroyuki Kikukawa, general manager of research at Nissan Securities.<\/p>\n
Coronavirus infections increased significantly in the areas where the Omicron is spread. This prompted many countries to impose new restrictions, including Italy and Greece.<\/p>\n
United Airlines and Delta Air Lines announced the cancellation of dozens of flights, with flight crew members and workers have been infected.<\/p>\n
“Still, given the soaring natural gas prices in Europe and Asia, oil will likely keep a positive tone on expectations that some industries would switch fuel from high priced gas to oil,” Kikukawa said.<\/p>\n
The market’s big gains on Wednesday were partly driven by a larger-than-expected drop in US crude stocks last week.<\/p>\n
The United States granted approval for anti-coronavirus tablets, starting at the age of 12, in the first local treatment for the disease to be taken by mouth.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, governments around the world have re-imposed a set of restrictions to limit the spread of Omicron.<\/p>\n
But concerns related to the potential impact of movement restrictions on fuel demand receded, because the OPEC+ left the door open to reconsidering its supply plan in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oil prices have achieved 4% gains during the past week, as the market is waiting the next steps of the OPEC+ group and the impact of the mutant Omicron. By 0741 GMT, Brent crude futures fell 41 cents, or 0.5%, to $76.44 a barrel, after rising 2.1% in the previous session. Oil prices rose from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":215931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[202],"tags":[278,169],"class_list":["post-215930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-featured","tag-oil"],"yoast_head":"\n