OPEC Crude Price Above 25 Dollars per Barrel

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) crude price has continued rising over this week with the average price having surpassed 25 US dollars a barrel.

The Vienna-based OPEC Secretariat announced Wednesday that the basket price of the seven OPEC crudes rose to 25.01 dollars a barrel Tuesday, up 0.09 dollars from Monday's 24.92 dollars a barrel. It is the first time since early July that the average price of OPEC has risen above 25 dollars a barrel.

OPEC will start to cut the oil production quotas of its members except Iraq by 1 million barrels per day (bpd) on September 1. Before this, it has reduced oil output twice this year by a total 2.5 million bpd to stop the oil price from dropping. However, owing to the slowdown in the world economy and the lowered demand in the international oil market, the cut of OPEC production didn't help stabilize the oil price.

The OPEC oil price has been declining since mid-June, even down to less than 23 dollars a barrel in mid-July. The OPEC president, Algerian Energy and Mining Minister Chakib Khelil, announced the decision to cut production for the third time on July 25.

Since the announcement, the crude price in the international market has started to rise. The weekly average price of OPEC also began rising after dropping for six successive weeks.

With a rise of 1.58 dollars within three weeks, the average single-barrel price reached 24.61 dollars last week, already close to the benchmark price of 25 dollars set by OPEC.

The OPEC decision to cut output has played a positive role in stabilizing the international oil market, Khelil said last week.

OPEC will hold a ministerial regular meeting in Vienna on September 26 to discuss further oil policies to be adopted.

Kuwaiti Oil Minister Adel al-Subaih, attending an international oil industry conference in London, said Wednesday, "The level of cuts at this time is heavy. We believe this would be sufficient for the rest of the year unless something comes up.... As long as prices are stable..., there is no need for further action to change output."






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