VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Indonesian crude price (ICP) stood at US$61.32 per barrel in July 2019, a slight increase of $0.32 per barrel, from $61 per barrel a month earlier.

A decrease in oil production by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) allegedly affected the ICP in July 2019, according to information gathered by Antara on Monday.

The ICP team pointed to OPEC's oil production plunging 68 thousand barrels per day to 29.8 million barrels per day in June 2019 than the previous month.

Apart from the decline in OPEC oil production, a surge in geopolitical tensions in the Middle East was also believed to have raised the ICP in July 2019.

Among issues raising the geopolitical tensions were Iran’s announcement to begin enriching uranium at higher level in days to come, viewed as violating the 2015 nuclear agreement; Britain’s detention of an Iranian tanker in the Gibraltar Strait and Iran’s seizure of two British tankers in Hormuz Strait; and US President Donald Trump’s statement that the US Navy has shot an Iranian drone in Hormuz Strait.

In the Asia-Pacific region, crude prices rose owing to China's policy to increase the quota of its refineries' imports at a total of 56.85 million metric tons, raising crude demand and crude oil throughput in China by 1.2 percent to 6.6 million barrels per day and in Taiwan, by one percent. to 970 thousand barrels per day as compared to early July 2019.

The other factor is the Energy Information Administration (EIA) report that the US crude oil stocks in July 2019 had dropped 32 million barrels to 436.5 million barrels as compared to June 2019 due to Barry typhoon affecting several production facilities in the Mexico Bay.

Following is the development of average crude prices in the global market in July 2019.

1. WTI (Nymex) rose $0.33 per barrel, from $54.71 per barrel to $55.04 per barrel.
2. Basket OPEC surged $1.75 per barrel, from $62.92 per barrel to $64.67 per barrel.
3. Brent (ICE) went up US$1.17 per barrel, from $63.04 per barrel to $64.21 per barrel.
4. ICP SLC increased, from $61.84 per barrel to $61.98 per barrel. However, dated Brent decreased $0.06 per barrel, from $64.10 per barrel to $64.04 per barrel.