The price of a barrel of Brent oil hit a three-year high today following supply disruptions in Libya and Nigeria, among other countries, and by an increase in demand, despite the Ómicron variant.

North Sea Brent crude reached $86.71 per barrel, the highest level since October 2018.

Hussein Sayed, an analyst at Exinity, quoted by AFP, explained that several factors contributed to this increase, namely production interruptions "in Libya, Nigeria, Angola, Ecuador, and more recently in Canada due to extreme cold."

"Markets remain focused on the delicate balance between supply and demand, which seems to have a fairly large impact on price swings during the post-pandemic economic recovery," said Walid Koudmani, an analyst at XTB, quoted by Lusa.

Nigeria, for example, has produced half a million fewer barrels per day since the mid-2020s.

Geopolitical tension has also contributed to the increase, at a time when the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is intensifying and causing further disruptions to Russian gas supplies to Europe.

However, the Omicron variant, which was initially considered a threat to oil demand, turned out to be less of a concern.

Thus, many analysts now expect that oil prices may exceed $90 per barrel or even $100.