Azerbaijan, Baku, 16 January / corr Trend A.Badalova / The Oil price is continuing to drop amid the risk of recession of the US economy, as well as the possible increase of crude production by OPEC.
During his visit to Saudi Arabia this week, US President George W.Bush said that the current oil prices are very high for the US economy. As a result of the trading sessions held at the world leading exchanges on 15 January, the oil prices went down considerably, RBK reported. The Official prices of oil futures for the nearest month were as follows: IPE Brent Crude - $90.98 (-1.94) per barrel at the Intercontinental Exchange Futures in London; Light Sweet Crude Oil - $91.90 (-2.30) per barrel at New York Mercantile Exchange.
Tancred Lidderdale, an expert of the Energy Information Agency (EIA), entering the US Energy Ministry, said in an interview to the Trend on 16 January that it is impossible to define the highest price of oil which the economy of any country including the United States, can stand.
"Every rise in the oil process raise difficulties [for consumers], which makes them to cut the consumption. Many ordinary consumers and the representatives of business suffer from the hike in oil prices," Lidderdale said.
US President called on the OPEC to increase the oil production, so as to cut the hike in oil prices. In Dec, OPEC made a decision that maximal amount of the oil production, without the consideration of Iraq ( only member of OPEC, not limited with the production), will comprise approximately 30mln barrels of oil a day.
According to the EIA's forecasts, the oil production by OPEC will be 31.8mln barrels in average a day in 2009, as compared to 32.6mln barrels a day in 2008. The EIA's January report indicates that the world demand for oil will increase by 1.6mln barrels a day in 2008 and 2009, as compared to the forecasted 1mln barrels a day.
Earlier Doug MacIntyre, the EIA Director for Energy Markets, told Trend that the oil prices will be decreased over 6 months of 2008 and in 2009.