Oil price drop will end as winter approaching: analysts

Kuwaiti officials and analysts predict that oil prices will regain momentum soon as the due increasing demand in the upcoming winter, Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported Tuesday.

The dip in oil prices was linked to several factors including the end of an Israel-Hezbollah conflict and the increase in American oil reserves, said the report.

Managing Director of International Marketing at the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation Jamal al-Nouri was quoted as saying that oil prices are still quite high although they have slid during the past month.

Winter should bring about an increase on prices as demand naturally rises, but the prices might only regain a few U.S. dollars and will not return to the high levels as in the previous months, added al-Nouri.

Kuwait's former Oil Minister Humoud al-Ruquba said the 50- dollar-per-barrel mark will maintain and it would not possibly drop lower.

The days of 20 and 30 dollars per barrel (dpb) have gone, as demands have been continuously increasing and the world economy is continuously growing as well as the world lacks viable alternative energy sources, he added,

Kuwait's Supreme Petroleum Council member Imad al-Atiqi said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is interested in maintaining price levels in the long-term.

However, oil prices would not be guaranteed to increase if a decision were made by the OPEC to cut production quota, he said.

Source: Xinhua