Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries
Petroleum
Devolopments
Volume 40 Issue 5
24
1. Oil Market
1. Prices
1-1Crude Oil Prices
Weekly average price of OPEC basket decreased during the first week
of March 2014, recording $105.7/bbl, and continued to decline after that, to
reach its lowest level of $103.2/bbl in the third week. During the fourth week,
weekly average price raise to $103.6/bbl, as shown in
figure 1
:
Petroleum Developments in the World Market and Member Countries
*
*
Prepared by the Economics Department.
Key Indicators
✍
In March 2014,
OPEC Reference Basket decreased
by 1.1% or $1.2/bbl from the previous month level to
stand at $104.2/bbl.
✍
World Oil Demand
in March 2014,
decreased
by 2.7% or 2.5 million b/d from the previous month level to
reach90.1 million b/d.
✍
World oil supplies
in March 2014,
decreased
by 0.6% or 0.6 million b/d from the previous month level to
reach 92.9 million b/d.
✍
US crude oil imports
in February 2014,
decreased
by 1.3% from the previous month level to reach 7.3
million b/d, whereas
US product imports increased
by
4% to reach about 1.7 million b/d.
✍
OECD commercial inventories
in February 2014
decreased
by
13 million barrels from the previous month
level to reach 2506 million barrels
, whereas
Strategic inventories
in OECD-34, South Africa and China
increased
by
3 million barrels to reach 1870 million barrels.
✍
The average spot price of natural gas
at the Henry Hub in March 2014
decreased
by $2.03/million BTU
from previous month level to reach $3.79/ million BTU.
✍
The Price of Japanese LNG imports increased
in February 2014 by $0.1/m BTU to reach $16.8/m BTU,
and the
Price of Korean LNG imports also increased
by $1.0/m BTU to reach $16.5/m BTU, whereas
the
Price of Chinese LNG imports decreased
by $1.6/m BTU to reach $11.7/m BTU.
✍
Arab LNG exports to Japan, Korea and China
were about 5.478 million tons in February 2014 (a share
of 41.5% of total imports).
Figure - 1
On monthly basis,
OPEC Reference Basket
averaged
$104.2/bbl,
representing a decrease of
$1.2/bbl or 1.1% comparing
with previous month, and
a decrease of $2.2/bbl or
2.1% from the same month
of previous year. Concerns
over China’s economic
growth, lower refinery
demand, ongoing supply
outages and geopolitical
tension factors were major
stimulus for the decrease in
oil prices during the month
of March 2014.
Weekly Average Spot Price of the OPEC Basket of Crudes 2013 - 2014
($/bbl)
