VIENNA The price of OPEC's basket of seven crudes decreased by 23 cents and was $30.91 a barrel Friday.
This was down from $31.14 Thursday according to OPEC calculations here, Monday.
Under an agreement between OPEC producers, crude production will be adjusted by 500 thousand barrels a day, if the basket stays above a $22-28 band for 20 working days or below the range for 10 working days, starting from 1st October. The amount of production adjustment however, may change in order to bring the prices back into the range.
The basket price so far since 1st October was as follows: Mon. Oct 2, 29.86 Tue. Oct 3, 29.53 Wed. Oct 4, 28.93 Thur. Oct 5, 28.42 Fri. Oct 6, 28.75 mon. Oct 9, 29.44 Tue. Oct 10, 30.54 Wed Oct 11, 30.54 Thur. Oct 12, 32.57 Fri. Oct 13, 32.34 Mon.
Oct 16, 30.83 Tue. Oct 17, 30.08 Wed. Oct 18, 30.44 Thu. Oct 19, 30.52 Fri. Oct 20, 30.57 mon. Oct 23, 31.17 Tue. Oct 24, 31.47 Wed. Oct 25, 30.94 Thur. Oct 26, 31.14 Fri. Oct 27, 30.91 According to OPEC president and Venezuelan energy and mines minister Ali Rodriguez, the organization is preparing for a 500 thousand b/d increase in production, due to the fact that OPEC basket price has remained more than $28.00 pb for more than 20 working days.
In September, the basket price averaged $31.45 a barrel, as opposed to $28.30 in August, $27.94 in July, $29.12 in June, $26.94 in May, $22.93 in April, $26.71 in March and $2.84 in February.
For the 2nd quarter of 2000, the basket price averaged $26.38 a barrel, as against $26.11 in the first quarter and $23.42 in the forth quarter of 1999.
For 1999 as a whole, the price of the basket averaged $17.47 a barrel, compared with $12.28 the previous year.
(IRNA)