As cases of coronavirus soar across the world, oil prices have fallen more than two percent on both major petroleum benchmarks. Brent Crude has dropped 2.2 percent to $77.78 per barrel. WTI Crude has also declined, this time even further by 2.31 percent to $75.21.
Coronavirus cases have reached new pandemic highs across the globe.
The increase in infections has been driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
Today City A.M. tweeted: “Oil prices dip two percent as Omicron variant renews concerns of a supply glut.”
Although the latest variant of coronavirus is considered milder, the large increase in cases has resulted in many of the major economies of the world re-introducing restrictions.
READ MORE: 22 things people on Universal Credit can get for free in 2022
This amounts to two percent lower than the $75.33 consensus in November.
The reduction in price for 2022 will be the first drop since August.
In December 2021 both Brent Crude and WTI Crude posted their biggest annual gains since 2016.
Brent Crude ended the year up 50.5 percent while WTI posted a 55.5 percent increase.
This increase was spurred by the global economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic slump.
The oil market has had a sustained period of ultra-low prices amid multiple coronavirus lockdowns across the world.
Prices rallied in autumn to a three-year-high of $86.70 per barrel on the Brent Crude benchmark.
Prices also shot up to a seven-year-high of $85.41 on WTI Crude.
However, both benchmarks then reported price drops of 13 percent to below $70 per barrel after the emergence of the Omicron variant.
The new strain has increased fears in the market of a return to lockdowns across key industrial economies.
For all the latest Business News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
