The fall in the price of oil at the current time is seasonal and normal, yet the fact that the price sunk by seven dollars in less than three weeks is not, said an oil expert on Saturday, in remarks to KUNA.
Usually a slide in the price of oil is attributed to anemic demand at this time of the year when the holiday season is in full swing, said oil expert Dr. Abdul-Sameea Behbehani. The price tumble was from USD 105 to USD 98 a barrel.
He said judging by statistics for the second and third quarters of this year, it was observable that there was a surplus in oil markets of about 1.3 million barrels as the supply reached 92.3 million barrels at the time that demand was for 91 million barrels.
In the United States about seven percent of drilling apparatuses stopped being used which has led to the lower price of oil, though the US production of shale oil has been on the rise from 200,000 barrels to 300,000 barrels a day, said Behbehani, adding that with the onset of the winter in the northern hemisphere the demand for oil is bound to spike.
Source : KUNA Kuwait News agency
