Oil is trading in the negative after the price decline the day before, caused by a new wave of fears about the spread of the coronavirus of a new strain “Omicron”.

The cost of February futures for Brent crude oil on London’s ICE Futures exchange by 8:28 Moscow time was $74.14 per barrel, which is $0.25 (0.34%) lower than the price at the close of the previous session.

 At the end of trading on Monday, these contracts fell in price by $0.76 (1%) – to $74.39 per barrel. The price of futures for WTI oil for January at the electronic trading of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) was at this time $71.02 per barrel, down $0.27 (0.38%) compared with the final value of the previous session. By the close of trading the previous day, the value of these contracts had fallen $0.38 (0.5%) to $71.29 per barrel.

“It looks like it’s back to COVID as the rapidly spreading Omicron strain is raising serious concerns about oil demand as countries revert to partial or full lockdowns,” said ThinkMarkets market analyst Fawad Razaqzada.  “Even looser restrictions, such as working from home, are reducing oil demand as people stop commuting.

Britain and Norway have tightened epidemiological restrictions after the first death from the new strain was reported in Britain. Meanwhile in China, Omicron was detected for the first time in the city of Tianjin.

Meanwhile, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) predicted the day before that the impact of the new strain would be “weak and short-lived as the world is better prepared to combat COVID-19 and related problems.” Also, the alliance in its monthly report maintained its estimate of global oil demand in 2021 at 96.63 million b/s, for 2022 at 100.79 million b/s.