5 Mar 2012 13:49

Average annual oil price could run to some $110/barrel in 2012 - Klepach

MOSCOW. March 5 (Interfax) - The average annual price for Urals oil this year could exceed the basic forecast and amount to around $110 per barrel, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach told Interfax.

"We have a basic budget forecast that the average annual price will be $100. That meant that we predicted that from the level of $110 we will move to a level of around $90 at the end of 2012. But we had a forecast [the so-called optimistic forecast] according to which the average annual price will be somewhere around $105-$107. Now we are higher than that level, which increases the likelihood of the variant of $107-$110 per barrel. The price will most likely be higher this year than in the basic scenario," Klepach said.