Omicron, the new COVID-19 variant currently spreading across the globe has caused the global oil-producing countries to postpone its meeting.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC has been forced to shift its joint technical committee meeting to Wednesday. This was in order to give committees more time to evaluate the impact of the new Omicron coronavirus variant.
According to a report by Bloomberg the joint ministerial monitoring committee, which comprises representatives of the broader oil-producing OPEC+ group, will meet on Thursday.
The delay, the organization said, was to allow time to analyse the market after a more than 10 per cent drop in prices on Friday after the emergence of a new Covi-19 variant.
OPEC will also discourse on the potential impact of China’s reserves released recently and the planned release by the United States and other consuming nations on the market.
OPEC and its partners are known as OPEC+ has been gradually increasing output following an agreement to increase output by 400,000 barrels a day each month.
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Last Friday, the price of the OPEC basket of 13 crudes stood at $76.09 a barrel compared with $81.31 the previous day.
The OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes, ORB, is made up of the following Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Djeno (Congo), Zafiro (Equatorial Guinea), Rabi Light (Gabon), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).