Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has forecast that the global oil prices will continue to remain stable in 2018.

Data on the website of the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry indicated, Thursday, that the OPEC has succeeded in trimming oil production by 1.8 million barrels per day since 2016.

This effort was undertaken to handle the oversupply of oil that has caused the global oil prices to plummet since 2014. Global oil prices could recover at around US$70 per barrel following the cuts.

OPEC leader Suhail al-Mazrouein remarked that this price stability is triggered by the level of compliance of OPEC members. Until January 2018, the recorded compliance rate on production cuts had reached 133 percent.

In addition, OPEC has continued to strengthen cooperation with oil-producing countries outside the OPEC to maintain global oil prices and the market share.

The OPEC has projected that the global oil demand will continue to increase in the next few years.

"We need to add 15 million barrels per day to meet the needs in 2040," al-Mazrouein noted.

Until recently, the global oil prices of West Texas Intermediate were recorded at US$63.31 per barrel, while Brent oil was priced at $66.63 per barrel.

Global oil prices are one of the factors taken into account while formulating the Indonesian Crude Oil Price (ICP) issued by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources through the Directorate General of Oil and Gas in the first week of the following month.

As is known, the assumption of the price of ICP in the State Budget 2018 is set at $48 per barrel. The ICP price in January 2018 had reached $65.59 per barrel, and the average ICP price in 2017 was recorded at $51.19 per barrel.

(O001/INE)
(T.SYS/A/KR-BSR/O001)

Reporter: SYSTEM
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2018