KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait said that the sharp fall in world oil prices is unjustified but that the market may not improve before the second half of this year.
“Nobody can justify the drop now,” Oil Minister Ali Al-Omair told reporters as prices slid toward six-year lows.
Al-Omair attributed the slide to a production glut of around 1.8 million barrels per day combined with a slowdown in global economic growth.
“We expect this situation to continue until the surplus on the market is absorbed and the world economy improves. Forecasts indicate that this will not happen before the second half of 2015,” he said.
World prices have been falling since June but the pace of the slide accelerated in November when the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided to maintain its production unchanged at 30 million barrels per day.
Kuwait: Crude price plunge unjustified
Kuwait: Crude price plunge unjustified
