Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar.18
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
The OPEC crude oil basket slipped below $49/barrel on March 17, the lowest level since Feb. 2.
OPEC website released the oil prices March 18, saying that the cartel's oil basket price has decreased to $48.79 on March 17.
According to OPEC's monthly report, published March 16, the twelve members of this cartel produced 30.022 million barrels per day of crude oil in February, 137,600 barrels less than January.
The last month's level is approximately equal to the ceiling level, which had been set at 30 mb/d.
According to the report, published March16, the OPEC Reference Basket averaged $54.06/b in February, representing a gain of $9.68 or nearly 22% amid a pickup in prompt demand from Europe and Asia and optimism that oil prices may have reached bottom.
The report says that the demand for OPEC crude is estimated at 29.1 mb/d in 2014 and in 2015, required OPEC crude is projected at 29.2 mb/d.
According to Bloomberg's statistics, WTI price for delivery April 15 also decreased by 2.51 percent on March18 to $42.37, while Brent decreased by 2.25 percent to $53.44 day-to-day (For delivery May 15).
OPEC's oil basket (ORB) 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 monthly report released Feb. 9 said that the cartel's total crude oil output has fallen by about 53,200 bpd in January compared to December, reaching 30.153 mbpd.
Edited by CN