Oil prices fell more than 5% today, Monday, and Brent crude fell in futures transactions by nearly $4 below $70 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude fell by the same amount below $67 a barrel.
According to Arab Net, this decline is due to the spread of the Omicron mutant in Europe and the United States, which has increased investor fears that imposing new restrictions on business to combat its spread will lead to a decrease in demand for fuel.
Celvin Wong, a market analyst at CMC Markets, said the drop in oil appeared to be consistent with the decline in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 stock indices.
He attributed the decline to fears of imminent restrictions on economic activity to contain the spread of Omicron worldwide.
On the other hand, US energy companies this week increased oil and natural gas rigs for the second week in a row.
