KUWAIT: The barrel price for Kuwaiti oil went down Thursday by 96 cents to settle $41.84 per barrel after being at $42.80 pb the day before, said Kuwait Petroleum Cooperation (KPC) yesterday. In the global market, the price of oil yesterday was relatively stable despite some problems facing Canadian and Nigerian oil supplies. The strength of the US dollar and expectation that the Federal Reserve would increase the interest rates by June also played a factor in the stability of the price.
The Brent mix price was down 12 cents to settle at $48.81 per barrel, a similar case was with the June and July contracts for the American crude which went down by 3 and 11 cents to settle at $48.16 and $48.67 pb respectively. Meanwhile, the OPEC daily basket price stood at $43.84 a barrel Thursday, compared with $44.88 the previous day, the OPEC said yesterday. The annual average of the OPEC basket price hit $49.64 pb, it said in a press release.
The new OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: 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). During their recent meeting in Vienna in late 2015, OPEC member countries had decided to maintain their production at 30 million barrels per day (bpd) despite a surplus in the market estimated at over a million barrels.
