Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The price of headline crudes belonging to member states of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) stood at $36.75 per barrel on Thursday, following recent gains according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.
The OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the crudes from 13 OPEC member countries including: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Djeno (Congo), Zafiro (Equatorial Guinea), Rabi Light (Gabon).
Others are 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).
OPEC, in its Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) on Wednesday, said global oil demand will start to recover in the second half of the year from the crash in the second quarter.
The cartel noted that despite this, it will still be down by 6.4 million bpd in H2 from 2019 levels as demand for fuels will continue to be constrained by the coronavirus pandemic and the measures to contain it.
According to the report, the loss in global oil demand will slow to 6.4 million barrel per day in the second half of the year, compared to an estimated decline of 11.9 million barrels per day in the first half of the year.
OPEC left its full-year 2020 global oil demand projection unchanged at a decline of 9.1 million barrels per day.
OPEC also projects demand for its crude at 23.6 million barrels per day this year, cut down by 700,000 barrels per day from the previous month’s estimates. This year’s demand for OPEC crude is expected to be down by 5.8 million barrels per day compared to 2019.
OPEC’s crude oil production in May was higher than the group’s expectations for demand for its crude – at 24.19 million barrels per day. OPEC’s crude oil production also dropped by 6.3 million barrels per day from April.
