Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 15
By Dalga Khatinoglu- Trend:
OPEC's oil basket price moved upward on Jan.14, but less that other benchmarks. According to the OPEC's official websites' price chart, published on Jan.15, the cartel's oil basket increased from $41.50/barrel on Jan.13 to $41.65/barrel on Jan.14.
OPEC oil basket price fell by $4.18 from Jan.8 to Jan.13.
However, the restoration in OPEC's crude price was far less than Brent or American WTI benchmarks.
Brent crude gained $2.10, or 4.5 percent, to settle at $48.69 on Jan.14 a barrel, in its strongest daily percentage gain since June 2012, Reuters reported. The benchmark hit a low of $45.19 on Tuesday, the lowest since March 2009. U.S. crude oil also settled at $48.48 up $2.59, or 5.6 percent, the biggest gain since August 2012.
Oil futures marked their strongest gain in more than two years on Wednesday, snapping a four-day losing streak as traders turned briefly away from the bearish pressures of the worldwide glut to focus on technical trading ahead of options expiration.
OPEC's oil basket is currently made up of the Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Oriente (Ecuador), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Qatar Marine (Qatar), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).
OPEC's oil basket price was $107.89 in mid-June, but has been in dramatic decline, especially since October. In November 2014 the OPEC average basket prices amounted to $75.57 per barrel compared to $85.06 per barrel in October, according to the cartel's data.
Despite the ceiling level of 30 million barrels per day (mbpd) by OPEC, 12 members of this cartel produced 30.053 mbpd in November. However the output is about 390,100 less compared to the preceding month, according the OPEC's latest monthly report released December 10, 2014.
The biggest decline in the crude production level belongs to Libya with 248,300 bpd fall in a month, followed by Saudi Arabia (60,100 bpd) and Kuwait (59,400 bpd).
OPEC members held a meeting in ministerial level November 27, 2014 to evaluate the global oil market and the falling trend of the oil price. Iran and Venezuela wanted to lower the Cartel's oil output and set a new ceiling level below the current 30 mbpd level.
OPEC said that the demand for the organization's crude was estimated at 29.4 mbpd in 2014. In 2015, the figure is estimated to reach 28.9 mbpd.
Edited by CN
Dalga Khatinoglu is an expert on Iran's energy sector, head of Trend Agency's Iran news service