(London) Oil prices were edged up on Monday, with investors banking on a less than feared Omicron variant impact on demand as Iranian nuclear talks continue in Vienna, Austria.
At around 5:35 a.m., the price of a barrel of North Sea Brent for February delivery was up 0.16% to $ 75.27.
In New York, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for the month of January rose 0.11% to 71.75 dollars.
The prices of the two benchmark contracts “are well oriented on Monday […] against a backdrop of growing optimism “in the markets, notes Avtar Sandu, analyst at Phillip Futures, investors believing that” the spread of the Omicron variant would not cause serious economic damage “.
If this strain appears to be spreading faster than the Delta variant, it would cause less severe symptoms, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday.
Crude prices are in line with last week’s trend when they climbed 8%, their best weekly performance since the end of August.
Negotiations between the West and Tehran on the subject of the Iranian nuclear deal, which resumed at the end of November in the Austrian capital, however still hang over the crude market.
If a deal were made, Iran could resume crude exports at full speed, flooding the market.
Iranian chief negotiator Ali Bagheri on Sunday reported progress when British Foreign Minister Liz Truss warned that this was Tehran’s “last chance” to negotiate in earnest.