By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Oil was mixed on Tuesday morning in Asia as optimism on Omicron’s impact rose. However, supplies remained tight.
Brent oil futures slipped 0.36% to $78.23 by 8:54 PM ET (1:54 AM GMT) and crude oil WTI futures went up 0.21% to $75.73.
"Though Omicron is spreading faster than any COVID-19 variant yet, a relatively relieving news is that most people infected with Omicron are showing mild symptoms, at least so far," said Leona Liu, analyst at Singapore-based DailyFX.
As a result, the UK's government will not introduce new COVID-19 restrictions for England before the end of 2021, according to its health minister.
But even then, U.S. airlines cancelled more than 1,300 flights on Sunday as COVID-19 brought down the head count of staff and a number of cruise ships had to cancel stops.
"The disruption to goods and services from isolating workers, notably air travel, seems to be the main fallout so far," Jeffrey Halley, analyst at brokerage OANDA, said of rising Omicron cases. "That is only likely to cause short-term nerves, with the global recovery story for 2022 still on track."
Oil prices have jumped by over 50% this year, driven by recovering demand and supply cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, or OPEC+.
Talks on reviving Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal resumed on Monday between world powers and Iran. Iran stated that oil exports were the focus of the talks, which so far has not boosted its shipments.
The next OPEC+ meeting on Jan. 4 will see if the cartel will go ahead with a planned 400,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) production increase for February.
The producer alliance stuck to its plans at its last meeting to boost output for January despite Omicron.
Investors now await U.S. crude oil supply data from the American Petroleum Institute, due later in the day.