Russian energy minister warns against 'hasty' decisions on oil output

Russia's energy minister cautioned on Monday against hasty decisions in the wake of the discovery of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

"We have to meticulously monitor and watch. There is no need for hasty decisions," Interfax reported Alexander Novak as having said.

Indeed, OPEC+ countries had decided to postpone a meeting of their Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee for two days, until 2 December, in order to gather more information.

OPEC+ ministers were scheduled to meet that same day to decide on their combined output in January.

Novak also reportedly said that neither the members of the cartel nor its main allies, which together were known as OPEC+, had asked to renegotiate their current agreement in response to Omicron.

Nevertheless, even before Omicron´s appearance, some market observers had been speculating that OPEC+ might respond to the recent release of oil reserves by the US and multiple other countries by delaying any fresh hike in its own production.

As of 1012 GMT, front month Brent crude oil futures were bouncing back 4.4% to $75.92 per barrel following a rout during the previous session.