By Barani Krishnan

Investing.com – US oil price fell again on Friday. This was despite OPEC signaling that they were ready to reduce production at all times if Omicron fears continue to impact energy demand.

Oil prices increased on Thursday after closing lower for the fifth day in a row and then remained high for much of Friday. But at settlement, WTI, or the West Texas Intermediate benchmark for U.S. crude, fell while Brent, the London-traded global gauge for oil, managed to eke out a gain.

Analysts read the initial bounce back as a sign of the market’s confidence in OPEC+’s decision to leave its output unchanged for now, with a caveat for change should demand collapse going into the first quarter 2022.

“Whatever initial comfort the market took with the OPEC decision seems to have evaporated and now there are fears again that this thing is going to come back and bite us in the rear,” said John Kilduff, founding partner of Again Capital, an energy hedge fund in New York.

Brent crude oil settled at $66.26/barrel, down 24c, or 0.4%. U.S. crude oil benchmark dropped 2.8% during the week. WTI also fell 20% in six consecutive weeks after reaching an eight-year high at $85.41 on Oct. 15.

The global standard for oil was London-traded crude. It settled at $69.88, up 21c, or 0.3%. After hitting an all-time high of $86.70 in mid October 2014, it was lower by 4% and 18% over the last six weeks.

Omicron appears to have halted the Omicron scandal, which seems to have turned on its head the rally in oil prices for 2021. This brought an end to the price surge many expected to see at $100/barrel (or minimum $90) by year’s end. WTI is still up 36%, while Brent has a 35% increase.

Since health authorities announced the first U.S. case of the Omicron in California on Wednesday, there have been at least eight more infections reported, five of them in New York City — an early epicenter of Covid-19 in 2020.

Dave Chokshi, New York City’s Health Commissioner, stated that the Omicron was spreading in New York City, independently of any infections from South Africa.

“This is not just people who are traveling to southern Africa or to other parts of the world where Omicron has already been identified,” Chokshi said.