Oil prices extend gains, Brent crude trade near 80 dollars a barrel amid surge in Omicron variant

Oil prices today extended gains, with Brent crude trading near 80 dollars a barrel despite the rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant, supported by supply outages and expectations that U.S. inventories fell last week. In intra-day trade, Brent crude was trading around 79 dollars and 80 cents per barrel while WTI crude prices were at 76 dollars and 80 cents per barrel when reports last came in.