The price of Kuwaiti crude oil went down Wednesday by USD 0.21, settling at USD 50.49 per barrel after being at USD 50.70 pb the day before, said the news bulletin for Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) Thursday.
In the global market, the price for the Brent mix for February went down also by USD 0.57 reaching USD 57.33 while the price of American crude settled at USD 53.27 pb.
The decrease in the price of future contracts for oil was due to fears regarding the lack of demand and increase supplies in world markets. Prices in the second portion of 2014 saw a 50 percent decrease, which was a represented a 'nightmare' for producing countries.
Oil expert Dr. Abdulsamee Behbehani told KUNA that the key factor for the price fall in 2014 was OPEC's insistence on keeping production at 30 million barrels a day, which is approximately third of the global production.
There are other geopolitical factors that played a role in the decline, namely the increase in the production of oil shale and producers fears of not being able to overcome the 49-percent price drop, said Behbehani.