U.S. cuts oil demand, price forecasts on Omicron concerns

LONDON (Bloomberg) --The Biden administration’s efforts to lower energy costs may have gotten unexpected help from the latest coronavirus variant. As a result of travel restrictions following the outbreak of the omicron variant of Covid-19, the Energy Information Administration cut its projections for both global benchmark Brent and U.S. crude futures by nearly $2 a barrel for 2022, according to the Short-Term Energy Outlook. The agency also lowered its outlook for consumption of petroleum and liquid fuels in the fourth quarter and first quarter while raising its forecast for oil output from OPEC+ and the U.S.