Oil prices on world markets also fell last week, for the fifth time in a row, as traders fear that a new variant of the coronavirus could cause economies to close again, and thus a drop in oil demand.
The price of a barrel in the London market fell about 8 percent last week, to $ 72.72, while in the U.S. market a barrel fell 10.4 percent, to $ 68.15.
This is the fifth week in a row that prices have fallen, which has not been recorded since March last year, and is the result of a sharp drop on Friday after news of the emergence of a new variant of the coronavirus, called omicron.
On Friday alone, barrel prices sank more than 11 percent, their biggest daily drop since April last year, and plunged to their lowest levels in more than two months.
Until Friday, oil prices seemed likely to break a four-week negative string, but on Friday barrel prices sank more than $ 10 as the market was shaken by news that a new variant of the coronavirus with a large number of mutations had been identified in South Africa.
It is feared that the omicron variant could be vaccine-resistant and more contagious than previous virus variants.
As a result, many countries, including the EU, the UK, the US and Brazil, have announced tighter travel controls from six South African countries.
This has upset investors, who were already concerned about the rapid spread of the coronavirus in Europe and the re-lockdown in some countries, such as Austria.

All of this could slow the recovery of economies from the corona crisis and cause a drop in oil demand.