Price of Kuwait crude oil per barrel on Thursday fell by USD 1.61 to USD 73.52 pb, compared to USD 75.13 a day before, said Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) on Friday.
OPEC, due to hold a ministerial meeting in Vienna on 27 November, is not expected to reduce the members' crude output, a matter that caused prices to fall. Such anticipation that output ceiling will be maintained caused US crude prices to fall to its lowest since October 2011.
Earlier today, OPEC announced that the price of its basket of 12 crudes stood at USD 75.15 a barrel on Thursday, compared to USD 76.96 pb the previous day.
The oil exporters' cartel opted in a ministerial meeting in June to keep its output ceiling unchanged at 30 million barrels per day, expressing confidence in the market. OPEC's news bulletin put the basket annual average price, for the past year, at USD 105.85 pb.
The decline in prices took place despite Thursday data from the US Department of Energy Information Administration that the American crude stockpiles unexpectedly fell 1.7 million barrels last week, against analysts' expectations of a 750,000 barrel build in inventories.
Hypothetical price for Kuwaiti crude oil in the State budget is USD 75 pb.