The Brent oil price fell by around 3% last year, Commerzbank’s commodity analyst Carsten Fritsch notes.

OPEC oil production falls by 120k bpd in December

“The year-end level of less than $75 per barrel was the lowest in four years. Since the beginning of the new year, the price has risen noticeably and yesterday reached its highest level since mid-October at $77.5 per barrel.”

“One reason is the concern that less oil from Iran and Russia is likely to reach the market due to stricter sanctions. In addition, Bloomberg reported in its survey that OPEC oil production fell by 120 thousand barrels per day in December, with the United Arab Emirates being particularly responsible for this. These produced significantly more than agreed in recent months.”

“However, the overproduction of the nine OPEC countries bound by the production targets still totaled more than 400 thousand barrels per day in December.”