Oil prices are seeing a shaky start to the week as investors remain concerned about demand amid the spread of the Omicron variant. In early trading, Brent crude futures are modestly lower. Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate crude futures have resumed trading after taking a pause on Friday – WTI Crude is down around 1 percent.
Investors are focusing on next week’s OPEC+ meeting to see if a production increase is in the cards for February. However, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister says that oil prices are unlikely to see significant changes next year.
The fresh concerns over oil demand comes after nearly 8000 flights across the world were cancelled over the weekend due to Omicron and staff shortages. On Sunday alone, 1400 flights in the U.S. were cancelled in and around 5,900 were delayed. The latest figures for today show that nearly 700 flights have been cancelled so far.
