Brent near $80 a barrel as market shrugs off Omicron variant

Omicron-induced staff shortages led to thousands of flights cancellations over the Christmas weekend in the US

Oil prices extended gains on Tuesday, with Brent crude trading near $80 a barrel, despite the rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant, supported by supply outages and expectations that US inventories fell last week. Brent crude rose by $1.04, or 1.3 per cent, to $79.64 a barrel by 1119 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude rose $1.15, or 1.5 per cent, to $76.72.

Both contracts traded at their highest in a month.

"Support comes as well from high aggregated production disruptions in Ecuador, Libya, and Nigeria and the expectation of another large drop in US crude inventories," said UBS oil analyst