OPEC Basket Falls to $43.31 Per Barrel

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) daily basket price stood at $43.31 per barrel on Thursday, compared with $43.44 per barrel recorded on Wednesday.

According to OPEC Secretariat calculations released Friday, the latest price indicated that the basket price dropped 0.3 percent on Thursday.

The loss can be attributed to the worries over demand which continues to face a headwind with rising coronavirus cases in the United States and other major economies.

Also known as the OPEC reference basket of crude oil, the OPEC basket, a weighted average of oil prices from different OPEC members around the world, is used as an important benchmark for crude oil prices.

The OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Djeno (Congo), Zafiro (Equatorial Guinea), Rabi Light (Gabon), Iran Heavy (Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).

In other OPEC related news, the cartel’s production hit its lowest point on record in June, when additional voluntary cuts made by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Kuwait improved the production restrictions.

Overall group output fell by 1.8 million barrels per day from May to 22.3 million barrels per day in June.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait pledged combined extra cuts that took their respective maximum under the deal down to 7.5 million; 2.4 million and 2.1 million barrels daily respectively for the month.

This commitment prompted Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to interrupt production at the recently restarted offshore 300,000 barrels per day Khafji field in the shared Neutral Zone throughout June.

The three Mideast Gulf producers will not replicate their voluntary cuts in July. Instead, the OPEC+ group has extended its June cuts into this month, with no talks yet of a further extension.