/By Azernews/

By Nigar Abbasova

The price of oil in the world markets has decreased following the report of the U.S. Department of Energy on the reduction of crude oil stockpiles in the USA, Ria Novosti reported.

Global benchmark Brent crude oil futures were trading at $48.38 per barrel facing a decrease of 0.86 percent at 14:12 GMT on July, 7.  West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was at $47.01 per barrel, 0.89 percent down from its last close.

U.S. reserves of oil (excluding strategic reserves) in the last week have decreased by 2.2 million barrels which made 0.4 percent and amounted to 524.4 million barrels. Oil extraction in the reported period has decreased by 2.25 percent to 8.428 million barrels per day.

Most analysts predicted sharper decline of figures following API’s (The American Petroleum Institute) report that indicated the reduction by 6.7 million barrels. The fact lead to the drop in the black gold prices.

Meanwhile, International Monetary Fund which has analyzed the OPEC development strategy since 2014 found out that the strategy of market share preservation is inoperative.

The fund predicted that the prices of crude oil would increase up to $58-75 per barrel by 2020 should the OPEC gives up a small part of its market share and reduces it from 42 percent to 35 percent, Ria Novosti reported.

The fund's report also said that the organization has not managed to exclude the U.S. oil from the market regardless the OPEC’s dumping.

IMF has increased its forecast of the average price of oil by $1 for 2016-2017. The current forecast amounts to $36 and $42 per barrel respectively.

The prices are expected to stabilize at the level of $51 per barrel according to long-term forecast till 2021.

OPEC oil basket’s price stood at $44.18 per barrel on July 7 as compared to the rate of 44.35 shown previously.

Being introduced on June 16, 2005 the OPEC Reference Basket (ORB) is made up of the following oil brands: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Oriente (Ecuador), Rabi Light (Gabon), Minas (Indonesia), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Qatar Marine (Qatar), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).