Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 24
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran’s light oil price surpassed $63 per barrel in the global markets during the week to Dec. 15, after experiencing a fall in preceding week.
According to the National Iranian Oil Company's OPEC Affairs and International Energy Forums Office, each barrel of Iran’s Light oil registered the highest price increase among benchmarks in the global market and was sold at averagely $63.23 during the week from Dec. 8 to Dec. 15, or $1.20 more compared to the previous week.
The price of Iran’s Heavy oil stood at $60.49, indicating a rise by $1.02 during the week, compared to the previous week.
This year the average price of Iran’s Light oil was $51.97, while the average price of Heavy oil was $51.34.
The price of OPEC basket of 14 crude brands stood at $61.71 during the week till Dec. 15, indicating a rise by $0.87.
The OPEC Reference Basket (ORB) includes the following oil brands: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Oriente (Ecuador), Rabi Light (Gabon), Minas (Indonesia), 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).
The basket’s price stood at $62.16 per barrel on Dec. 20 as compared to $61.72 the previous day, according to OPEC.
The OPEC and non-OPEC countries’ decision to extend the last year agreement on keeping the oil output down till 2018, led to strengthening the oil price within last weeks.
The decision by OPEC members in November 2016 to decrease the output by 1.2 million barrels per day to a level of 32.5 mbpd contributed to oil price revive in global markets in 2017.
