KUWAIT: The price of Kuwaiti oil went down Thursday by 17 cents to settle at $43.69 per barrel as opposed to $43.86 pb the day before, said Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) yesterday. The price of oil in the world markets went down after US energy reports showed an unexpected increase in crude reserves in the US, the world largest consumer of oil. This led to an increase of supplies by 2.5 million barrels in contracts with expectations of a decrease by 500,000 barrels.
The Brent crude price was down by 91 cents to $49.05 per barrel, the same occurred with the American crude which went down by $1.33 to $46.77 per barrel. The price of OPEC basket went up three cents on Thursday and settled at $45.28 per barrel as oppose to $45.25 pb the day before, said a statement yesterday. According to the OPEC bulletin, the annual average for the basket in 2015 was at $49.64 pb.
The new OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Oriente (Ecuador), Rabi Light (Gabon), Minas (Indonesia), 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).
