Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 12
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
OPEC oil basket price stood at $ 52.21 a barrel on Feb. 11, compared with $ 53.14 the previous day, the organization's website reported Feb. 12.
The price of OPEC basket of twelve crude oils reached $53.58 on Feb. 9, the highest record in 2015.
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).
The Reference Basket price was $107.89 in mid-June, but has been in dramatic decline, especially since October.
The ORB ended January down over 25 percent m-o-m to its lowest value in six years as global markets continued to be oversupplied and demand had yet to pick up. The oil basket price dropped $15.08 to $44.38/b, down $60.33 or 57.6 percent from a year ago.
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's latest monthly report released in Feb. 9 says that the cartel's total crude oil output has fallen by about 53,200 bpd in January compared to December, reaching 30.153 mbpd.
The report also says the demand for OPEC crude is estimated at 29.1 mbpd in 2014, representing a decrease of 1.2 mbpd from last year level.
In 2015, required OPEC crude is projected at 29.2 mbpd, representing an increase by 0.1 mbpd from estimated 2014 level.
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