(Bloomberg) — slumped as increasing coronavirus cases and a new Covid-19 strain raised concerns about the outlook for energy demand ahead of next week’s OPEC+ meeting on production policy.

London Futures dropped to $81/barrel as crude oil prices fell amid global market caution. As a result, virus cases in Europe are on the rise. The U.K. will ban travel from certain southern African countries temporarily and place travelers in quarantine due to concerns about this new strain.

“The new Covid variant found in South Africa is ringing fresh alarm bells,” said Vandana Hari, founder of Vanda (NASDAQ:) Insights in Singapore. “I expect OPEC+ to stay the course on its tapering strategy but if the new variant emerges as a major problem in the coming days, it may end up pausing the monthly increments.”

Dec. 2 is the meeting of OPEC+ to discuss January’s production policy. It follows an unprecedented decision by the U.S., other nations to draw on strategic stockpiles for rising energy costs. The cartel’s delegates have indicated that there might be a need to limit supply. Citigroup Inc (NYSE:). said reducing quotas would erode the group’s claim of providing public good by stabilizing markets.

The alliance, which has been restoring 400,000 barrels a day of supply to the market each month, will have to consider internal projections that the reserves release will exacerbate a surplus it’s forecasting for early next year. The group has, however, been accused of creating “artificial tightness” by the International Energy Agency, which urged an accelerated return of supply.

OPEC’s ability to meet its expanding output targets has been hindered by under-performance by some members. Due to production losses in Africa, Angola and Nigeria were unable to deliver the half-way increase that they had intended for October.

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