Saudi oil minister not worried about new Covid variant

Saudi Arabia's energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said today he is not worried about the new Covid-19 variant, known as Omicron.

According to the semi-official Alarabiya news, the minister offered no comment on Opec+ production plans ahead of this week's ministerial meeting, but his expression of a lack of concern indicates likely Saudi support for the alliance's programme of gradually increasing output on a monthly basis by 400,000 b/d.

Still, the planned series of Opec and Opec+ meetings this week have been pushed back slightly in light of the steep fall in crude futures prices on the final trading day of last week. The combined group's Joint Technical Committee (JTC) will now meet on 1 December, the same day as Opec ministers. The Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) and the Opec+ group ministers will meet the following day. The JTC and JMMC were to meet on 29 and 30 November, respectively.

Along with the Omicron variant, the meetings will consider the supply pushback from key consumer nations. The US and others said they will release crude from strategic reserves to combat high prices. Opec+ ministers have already flagged potential seasonal stockbuilds in the first quarter, and the group can pause its scheduled increases for up to three months if market conditions warrant it.

Front-month Ice Brent crude futures were higher by around 4.5pc today, retracing around half of the drop from the previous trading session.

By Samira Kawar