Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – Fear of tropical storms Marco and Laura passing through the United States has affected the Indonesian Crude Price (ICP) in August 2020.

The Directorate General of Oil and Gas at the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has set the ICP on August at 41.63 U.S. dollars per barrel or an increase of 0.99 U.S. dollars per barrel compared to that in the previous month.

"The August’s ICP was heavily influenced by the United States' policy of addressing hurricane Laura around the Gulf of Mexico. Besides trimming oil production, they even stop offshore oil operations," the ministry’s spokesperson, Agung Pribadi, said here on Saturday.

In addition to the natural events that hit the Gulf of Mexico, demand for crude oil is still heavily affected by the corona virus pandemic.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is still an important variable in ICP," Agung noted.

The ministry’s data show that the average ICP from the early of 2020 to the current month amounts to 40.08 U.S.dollars per barrel.

In January, the ICP was recorded at 65.38 U.S. dollars per barrel, then fell due to the pandemic to 56.51 U.S. dollars per barrel in February.

The ICP price continued to drop in March and April, amounting to 34.23 U.S. dollars per barrel and 20.66 U.S. dollars per barrel, respectively.

As economic activities become normal, and efforts to find COVID-19 vaccines have shown positive results, the ICP slowly rose to 25.67 U.S. dollars per barrel in May.

The ICP kept going up to 36.68 U.S. dollars per barrel in June, 40.64 U.S. dollars per barrel in July, and 41.63 U.S. dollars per barrel in August.

Reporting by Indonesia Window