Kuwait crude oil price drops $2.19 to $42.45 per barrel

The price of Kuwait crude oil per barrel fell USD 2.19 to stand at USD 42.45 pb in Wednesday's trading compared to USD 44.64 pb on Tuesday, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) said on Thursday.
On the international market, the price of Brent crude oil slightly rose by USD 0.05 to US 51.15 pb and the American crude jumped by USD 0.72 to USD 48.65 pb.
Oil closed trading up on international markets on Wednesday for the first time in five days supported by weekly data for U.S. crude inventories showing a surprising drop last week.
In an interview with KUNA Wednesday, oil expert Mohammad Al-Shati expected that oil prices are poised to carry on with their downtrend over the coming period, citing oversupply from Russia and Iraq, as well as other factors.
Al-Shati said that Russia's oil production has been on the rise recently to hit 10.58 million barrels per day (bpd), and Iraq's increased to 2.94 million bpd, on Wednesday. No signals of a potential rise can be seen.
Other causes for the potential fall include the rise of the US dollar and the increase of the US inventory of diesel and petrol. In addition, several refineries are currently having maintenance operations, Al-Shati said.
He cited international data revealing that the OPEC production in December was up by 240,000 bpd, supporting the oversupply belief.