Md Rahmat Ali Sagor

The emergence of Omicron at the end of November sparked a steep sell-off in oil, but the oil market appears to stand on a better footing pencilling in an increase in global oil demand of 5.4 million barrels per day in 2021 and by 3.3 million in 2022, when it will to return to pre-pandemic levels at 99.5 million bpd which is the revised version of earliar forcast of the IEA for global oil demand by an average 100,000 barrels per day for both this year and next year. The IEA envisages new containment efforts to be able to halt the spread of Omicron, thus it might have a muted impact on the global economy than previous other Covid-19 waves, prior to widespread vaccination campaigns. Despite the economic uncertainties linked to Omicron, the OPEC along with their allies agreed to stick to their planned production where the US, Canada and Brazil are set to pump at their highest-ever annual levels. Saudi Arabia and Russia could also join them setting records which could lead to surplus supply of 1.7 million bpd in the first quarter of 2022 and 2.0 million bpd in the second quarter.