VIENNA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) daily basket price stood at 17.73 U.S. dollars a barrel on Thursday, compared with 17.51 dollars on Wednesday, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations released Friday.
Also known as the OPEC reference basket of crude oil (ORB), the OPEC basket is a weighted average of oil prices from different OPEC members around the world, and is used as an important benchmark for crude oil prices.
It currently averages the oil prices of 13 countries, namely Algeria, Angola, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.
Crude oil prices collapsed in March 2020, recording their deepest monthly drop since the global financial crisis in 2008, according to OPEC monthly report published on Thursday.
The oil cartel expected global oil demand to drop by 6.8 million barrels per day in 2020 in the report.
Saudi Arabia Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud and his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak held a phone call on Thursday and issued a joint statement emphasizing their commitment to stabilise the oil market, according to the OPEC website.
"Both our nations are strongly committed to implement the agreed target cuts over the next two years and will continue to closely monitor the oil market and are prepared to take further measures jointly with OPEC+ and other producers if these are deemed necessary, " the statement said.
The ministers also expressed confidence in the prospect of their partners in OPEC+ (a group of 23 oil-producing nations made up of the 13 members of OPEC and 10 non-OPEC members led by Russia) and other producers to live up to their commitment to cut output. Enditem
