Average annual oil price in 2012 might go below $115 per barrel - Klepach
LENINSK-KUZNETSKY. Aug 6 (Interfax) - Russia's Economic Development Ministry might lower its forecast for the average annual oil price in 2012, Deputy Economic Minister Andrei Klepach told journalists on Monday.
"So far it is a decrease. It is still [expected to be] lower than $115 per barrel," Klepach said.
In July, Economic Development Minister Andrei Belousov said that if the oil price remains at around $100 in the second half of this year, the average annual price will range between $106 and $108 per barrel.
In its monitoring of the state of the economy in the first half of this year, the Economic Development Ministry noted that the price for Brent crude fell to $106.5/barrel in the second quarter, compared to $117.1/barrel in the first quarter. In June, the price continued to fall. For July, the average price came to $93.4/barrel - down 14.2% over May 2012 and 16.4% over June 2011.
Analysts polled by Interfax at the end of July forecast that the oil price will stand at $107 per barrel of Urals this year and $101 per barrel next year. The Russian government plans to calculate its 2013 budget based on a price of $97/barrel.
