Crude oil prices may rise further in 2018, remain above $75 a barrel: IEA

This comes at a time when international benchmark Brent crude price was seen at $77.38 a barrel on Thursday

According to Birol, the drop in production from Venezuela is another important reason for this declining trend in the last two years. “Unfortunately, we expect further decline in Venezuelian oil. In addition to this, several Middle East countries are going through difficult times because of geo-political situations. This is ranging from Iraq, Iran, Libya and also Nigeria,” he said, adding that unless production is increased by OPEC, the world may see further tightening of markets towards the end of this year.

After exports from Iran nose dived to an average of 1.68 million barrels per day (bpd) from August 1-16, compared to 2.32 million barrels a day for July, there were speculations that Iran oil consumers may wind down purchases further. Meanwhile, another report states that during the period under review, demand from India has also declined to 203,938 bpd, compared to 706,452 bpd in July.  

According to a report by India Ratings and Research, crude oil prices may increase but remain between $65-70 a barrel for the remainder of 2018-19. “Crude oil supplies from the OPEC have declined due to rising geo-political tensions. Sanctions on Iran, unplanned shutdowns in Libya, along with debt crisis in Venezuela have led to supply constraints. Also, US crude oil production growth has stabilised, there have been draw downs in crude oil inventory stocks and the total exploration capex in the US has slowed down, supporting the upward trend in crude price,” the report said. 

On Thursday, diesel prices hit a record high in Delhi at Rs. 69.93 a litre,  while that of petrol was seen at Rs 78.30 a litre. Petrol had touched an all-time high of Rs 78.43 in Delhi on May 29 this year.