ARAMCO CEO STAYS BULLISH ON DEMAND AFTER PRICE ROUT

Oil demand will bounce back to what it was before the pandemic crushed energy use last year, and a rout in prices last week was based on unfounded fears of new variants of the disease, the head of Saudi Aramco said. The market “overreacted” to news of the new omicron coronavirus variant when prices plunged Friday, chief executive Amin Nasser said Monday. “We’re very optimistic about demand,” he said in Dhahran. “We’re seeing a good response from the markets, especially in Asia.” Crude recouped some its losses on Monday after the end-of-week rout that saw U.S. oil plunge more than 10 per cent, slumping below US$70 for the first time since September. Nasser repeated his forecasts that demand should rebound to more than 100 million barrels a day.