Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.19
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
Given the prime cost of production in many countries, the high price for oil, which was observed recently, was unreasonable, the Energy Minister of Azerbaijan Natik Aliyev told Trend, expressing his attitude to falling prices on the world market.
He said that the high oil prices (an average of $110 per barrel) remained for a sufficiently long period, and speculative activity on the market is one of the factors that contributed to this.
"The price for oil, if we take the last 20 years, was changing as a sinusoid, although there were boom times," Aliyev said. "The price, which we achieved - let's say that on average it was $110 per barrel - was kept long enough. High prices, of course, coincided with the desire of the oil-producing countries, but on the other hand, I think that this price was not justified by the prime cost of today's oil, which is produced in many countries."
Reducing the cost of oil is associated with an increase of the volume of oil supplies on the world market by the United States since early 2014, which takes place against the background of the events in Ukraine.
At the same time, the United States and Europe lifted international sanctions on Iran's energy supply. This process (decline in oil prices) has especially accelerated in summer 2014 and continues at present.
Regarding the Azerbaijani oil price, it should be noted that the average price for AZERI LT, exported from Azerbaijan via the Ceyhan, Batumi and Supsa ports to Italian Augusta port, was nearly $65.69 per barrel on Dec.8-12 or by $6.43 less than the previous week. The maximum price for AZERI LT was $67.79 per barrel and the minimum price was $62.94 per barrel during the reporting period.
Edited by CN
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