MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – Oil prices fell on Friday. The market is on track for ending the week about unchanged. Rising Omicron coronavirus cases raised concerns that new fuel curbs might be implemented. However, a weaker dollar helped commodity markets generally.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate’s crude oil futures declined 0.2% or 17 cents to $72.21 per bar at 0155 GMT.

Futures declined by 11 cents (or 0.2%) to $74.91/barrel

Look at Omicron, that is a negative situation people are struggling to understand. Do we need to worry about new restrictions? Vivek Dhar, a commodities analyst at Commonwealth Bank, said that this is what the market was trying to digest.

The number of Omicron cases in the United Kingdom and South Africa has increased by a third every day. Mette Frederiksen (Denmark’s Prime Minister) warned that further restrictions may be imposed by the government to reduce the spread Omicron.

Some companies have stopped plans to bring back workers to their offices due to the Omicron variant’s rapid spread in the United States.

Craig Erlam, OANDA analyst, stated in a note that Crude continues to be affected by the Omicron variant. The demand outlook for next year is also taking a hit. However, OPEC+ remains ready to take action if necessary.

Russia, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+), and its allies have stated that they might meet before their January 4 meeting if there are changes to the demand outlook.

WTI and Benchmark Brent both rose around 2% Thursday. This was boosted by record U.S. implicit demand and a weaker U.S. Dollar. The Bank of England shocked markets with a rate increase, adopting a more hawkish position than the Federal Reserve.

WTI had a week ahead of it, with Brent predicting a loss of 0.4%.