The spread of Omicron brought profits for oil

Crude futures were higher on Wednesday, even after the OPEC + countries agreed to increase production for February and after the data showed an increase in US stocks. The reason was the rapid spread of the Omicron variant that alarmed investors.

The world benchmark, the British Brent gained 1.5% sta 81.22% per barrel, while the American WTI crude gained 1.7% to $ 78.31 a barrel.

U.S. crude stockpiles rose 2.1 million barrels, partly due to tax incentives for producers to cut stockpiles before the end of the year.

The United States reported nearly 1 million new coronavirus infections on Monday, the highest daily rate of any country in the world and almost double the previous U.S. peak a week earlier. Overall product supply, a demand indicator, fell sharply, although strong demand was seen in the last four weeks from the same period two years ago, before the pandemic began.

“Silent demand for products – especially gasoline – has declined, suggesting that the public was wary of traveling in the wake of the growing number of Omicron variants. These fears are likely to persist for a few more weeks,” wrote Caroline Bain. Chief Commodity Economist at Capital Economics.

The OPEC + producing countries, which include members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries along with Russia and others, agreed on Tuesday to add another 400,000 barrels a day in February, as they have done every month since August. Nevertheless, OPEC + is likely to have difficulty achieving this goal, as its members, such as Nigeria, Angola and Libya, are struggling to increase production, Barclays analysts said in a note.