The oil prices lost ground this Monday in a market worried about the closing of factories in China to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus, a measure that could affect activity in the second world power.
The price of a barrel of North Sea Brent for February delivery it lost 1.01% to $ 74.39 in London.
While in New York the price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for January it yielded 0.53% to 71.29 dollars.
The Covid-19 Omicron variant, which has been detected in more than 60 countries, represents a “very high” global risk, with some evidence that it evades the protection of the vaccine, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
“The market was positive at the beginning of the day but information about factory closures in eastern China put downward pressure” on prices, explained Robert Yawger, head of energy futures contracts at Mizuho Securities.
The authorities of the province of Zhejiang, south of Shanghai, reported on Monday dozens of new cases of coronavirus since the beginning of December, a priori of the Delta variant.
At the same time in northeast China, the Tianjin city authorities announced that they had identified the Omicron variant in a person returning from abroad. It is the first known case in the Asian country.
These news hit market optimism about the impact of Omicron in the world economy, when in the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday the death of a person affected by the new variant.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) raised its forecast for global oil demand for the first quarter of 2022, but kept its growth prediction for the full year, saying that the Omicron variant would have a slight impact as the world gets used to dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Governments around the world, including Britain and Norway, were tightening restrictions to stop the spread of the new variant.
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Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx