OPEC Basket Oil Price Falls to $43.02

By Adedapo Adesanya

The average price of 13 crudes from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) stood at $43.02 per barrel on Tuesday.

The weighed crudes dropped by 0.83 per cent or 36 cents compared with $43.38 per barrel published the previous day, according to latest OPEC Secretariat calculations.

This was a result of rising worries as the three most populous cities in the United States: California, Texas, and Florida, which account for one-fifth of the world’s new cases, went into lockdown – a decision that analysts say will hurt fuel demand recovery.

Also, OPEC is looking to increase its output by two million barrels daily from next month, a decision that could trigger oversupply especially as an equilibrium may be difficult to find. This will be determined by a committee meeting holding today.

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

In a related news, Nigeria ranked top in Africa with $455.8 million among the cartel in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures, according to its Annual Statistical Bulletin (ASB) released on Tuesday.

As Africa’s largest oil producer, Nigeria was only second place to Saudi Arabia which led the 13-member group with $792.9 million.

Algeria came next to Nigeria in Africa with $172.6 million GDP figure, followed by Angola with $81.8 million, Gabon stood at $12.1 million and Congo; $11.6 million.

The ASB further disclosed that total world crude oil production declined in 2019 by 0.56 million barrels per or 0.7 per cent, compared to 2018 to average 75.3 million barrels per day following a historical high during 2018.

OPEC crude oil production declined sharply year-on-year by 1.9 million barrels per day or 6.0 per cent, while crude production by non-OPEC countries grew by 1.30 million barrels or 2.9 per cent.