Oil little changed as OPEC, governments weigh Omicron risks | Reuters

Oil little changed as OPEC, governments weigh Omicron risks | Reuters

Oil futures were little changed on Monday as new doubts emerged about the effectiveness of vaccines against the Omicron coronavirus variant, though OPEC predicted in its monthly report that the variant's impact on fuel demand would be mild.

Brent futures fell 22 cents, or 0.3%, to $74.93 a barrel by 11:25 a.m. EST (1625 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 13 cents, or 0.2%, to $71.54.

Both benchmarks posted gains of about 8% last week, their first weekly increase in seven.

"The major oil contracts registered decent weekly gains, but it is noticeable that current prices are still way below the pre-Omicron levels," said Tamas Varga, oil analyst at London brokerage PVM Oil Associates.