By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Oil was down Friday morning in Asia, but was set to end the week roughly unchanged. Concerns are growing that the spread of the omicron COVID-19 variant could lead to restrictive measures that will hit fuel demand.
A weaker dollar also lent support to the broad commodities market.
Brent oil futures fell 0.77% to $74.44 by 10:54 PM ET (3:54 AM GMT) and WTI futures fell 0.83% to $71.78.
"Look at what's happening with omicron, that's a negative which people are trying to digest. Are we going to be in line for some new restrictions? That's what the market's trying to figure out," Commonwealth Bank commodities analyst Vivek Dhar told Reuters.
The number of new omicron cases has been doubling every two days in the U.K., South Africa, and Denmark. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Thursday warned the government may impose further curbs to limit the spread of the variant.
Meanwhile, the spread of omicron in the U.S. led some companies to postpone plans to re-open offices.
"Crude continues to face significant headwinds from the Omicron variant, with the demand outlook for early next year taking a hit, but the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) stands ready to act should the situation necessitate, which will continue to backstop prices for now," OANDA analyst Craig Erlam said in a note.
The cartel said earlier in the month that it could meet ahead of its scheduled Jan. 4 meeting, if changes in fuel demand outlook require a review of its plan to add 400,000 barrels per day of supply in January 2020.