Crude Oil Higher; Saudi Prices, Omicron News Helps Confidence Rise By Investing.com – Investing.com

Crude Oil Higher; Saudi Prices, Omicron News Helps Confidence Rise By Investing.com – Investing.com

© Reuters.

By Peter Nurse   

Investing.com -- Oil prices climbed Monday on rising confidence that the Omicron Covid variant will have only a limited impact on global energy demand while an imminent rise in Iranian exports looks unlikely.

By 9:15 AM ET (1415 GMT), futures traded 2.8% higher at $68.08 a barrel, while the contract rose 2.5%, to $71.65.

U.S. Gasoline RBOB Futures were up 2% at $1.9934 a gallon.

Crude markets have been hit over the last month or so by the fear that rising numbers of Covid cases, exacerbated by the recent discovery of the new Omicron variant, would hit the demand of oil just as countries start to open up again.

Both benchmarks fell for a sixth week in a row last week, with both contracts over 10% lower in the last month.

However, reports in South Africa, where the new variant was first discovered, suggest that omicron cases there had only shown mild symptoms. Additionally, President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN in a weekend interview that “it doesn’t look like there’s a great degree of severity to it."

This has helped boost market confidence that the travel restrictions