Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 18
By Dalga Khatinoglu- Trend:
Despite a 1.9 percent increase in Brent crude price, which is the most widely used global crude oil benchmark, OPEC's oil basket slipped by 27 cents on Dec.17.
Brent crude jumped 2 percent to above $62 a barrel on Thursday Dec. 18 as well.
According to OPEC's official website, the oil basket price of this cartel decreased to $55.64/barrel on Wednesday, but the pace of down was little compared to the previous day which OPEC oil lost $1.99/barrel of its value.
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).
The OPEC oil basket price was $107.89 in mid-June, but has been in dramatic decline, especially after October.
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 Dec. 10.
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 on Nov.27 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 says that the demand for the organization crude is estimated at 29.4 mbpd in 2014. In 2015, the figure is estimated to reach 28.9 mbpd.
Edited CN
Dalga Khatinoglu is an expert on Iran's energy sector, head of Trend Agency's Iran news service
Follow him on @dalgakhatinoglu