Dec 13, 2021 07:46AM ET
By: AnalysisWatch
Oil costs fell on Monday as new worries about the Omicron Covid and questions about the viability of antibodies against it burdened costs.
At 1227 GMT, Brent fell 78 cents, or 1%, to $74.37 a barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell 72 cents, or 1%, to $70.95 a barrel.
Both benchmarks posted gains of about 8% last week, their first weekly gain in seven years.
The Omicron Covid variation, which has been accounted for in excess of 60 nations, represents a "exceptionally high" worldwide danger, as indicated by the World Health Organization, and there is proof that it avoids inoculation assurance.
Oxford University also said vaccines have been shown to lower protection against Omicron.
OPEC on Monday raised its forecast for global oil demand in the first quarter of 2022 but left its full-year growth forecast unchanged, saying the Omicron coronavirus would have little impact as the world got used to dealing with the pandemic.
Producers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, will meet on January 4th to decide on their production policies.
Iraq's oil minister said on Sunday he expected OPEC to maintain its current policy of gradually increasing output by 400,000 bpd a month at its next meeting.
The market showed little reaction to last Friday's announcement by the US Department of Energy that it would sell 18 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) on December 17th, part of an earlier plan to cut gasoline prices.
Traders will also focus this week on monetary policy decisions expected from the European Central Bank (ECB), the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, and the Bank of Japan, which could possibly include an early end to stimulus packages.
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