WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oil prices were seeing modest gains on Wednesday as market participants weighed the effectiveness of existing vaccines against the Omicron Covid-19 strain.
Geopolitical tensions also remained on investors' radar amid rising tensions between the United States and Russia regarding Ukraine.
Benchmark Bent crude futures rose half a percent to $75.79 a barrel, after climbing 3.2 percent in the previous session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 0.4 percent at $72.33 a barrel.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Tuesday said the Omicron variant appeared to be milder than previous strains, but also seemed to spread faster and could lead to more mutations in the future.
However, South African scientists warned the variant cut significantly the antibody protection generated by the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine.
British drug maker GSK said on Tuesday its antibody-based COVID-19 therapy with U.S. partner Vir Biotechnology (VIR.O) is effective against all mutations of the Omicron variant.
Iran nuclear talks, tensions between Russia and Ukraine and weather in northern-hemisphere winter also remained on investors' radar.
The U.S. weekly inventory data had little impact on markets. The American Petroleum Institute reported a decrease of 3.1m barrels of U.S. crude inventories in the week ending 3 December, although gasoline inventories and distillate stocks rose by 3.7m barrels and 1.2m barrels, respectively.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2021 AFX News
