Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – The Indonesian crude price (ICP) decreased by 4.2 U.S. dollars per barrel in September 2020 to 37.43 dollars from 41.63 dollars per barrel in August in the same year, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s spokesman Agung Pribadi said in a statement received by Indonesia Window here on Wednesday.

The decline was likely due to the increase in the global number of the COVID-19 cases, which has affected the IPC in September, he added.

According to him, the development of the COVID-19 cases has made market players recalculate the global oil demands.

“The spreads of the Coronavirus within a month have given a domino effect to the demands and prices (of crude oil) in the international market,” Agung said.

Besides the COVID-19 spreads, the measure taken by the OPEC+ (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries+) against countries which failed to obey a policy on production cut, and a plan to hold an extraordinary meeting in October have given negative sentiments to the ICP in September.

Another factor affecting ICP is the availability of crude oil, gasoline and distillates in the United States (US) in mid-September.

According to a report by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), crude oil reserves dropped by 1.6 million barrels, gasoline dropped by 4 million barrels, and distillates dropped by 3.4 million barrels.

"Oil prices are also affected by the weakening U.S. dollar exchange rate against other major currencies," Agung said.

Even though at the end of last week the world oil price had strengthened due to the economic stimulus package introduced by the U.S. government, this has not been able to boost oil prices beyond the previous month.

Following is the development of the average prices of major crude oil on the international market in September 2020 compared to August in the same year.

Dated Brent decreased by 4.01 U.S. dollars per barrel, from 44.82 U.S. dollars per barrel to 40.81 U.S. dollars per barrel.

WTI (Nymex) fell by 2.76 U.S. dollars per barrel, from 42.39 U.S. dollars per barrel to 39.63 U.S. dollars per barrel.

Brent (ICE) decreased by 3.15 U.S. dollars per barrel, from 45.02 U.S. dollars per barrel to 41.87 U.S. dollars per barrel.

Reporting by Indonesia Window