The surprise is not that oil prices dropped, but that its cost was above $50 per barrel for so long. Because there were no prerequisites for increasing the oil cost that we've seen for the last six months. On the contrary, everything was going to fall in oil prices. So, I think that the situation that has been developed in the last six months was driven by the desperate attempts of speculators to achieve the increase in oil prices in contrast to economic realities. However, they can not run from such realities. There are no possibilities for holding prices at a range of $50-60 per barrel," - Gonchar said.
He stressed that the market feels no oil shortage.
"I don't think the price of oil will fall too much. It is, rather, the restoration of the general trend. In particular, Trump's Administration policies contribute to this, and the availability of surplus of oil production capacities in the leading countries – oil exporters. This means that there is no any oil shortage in the market. Accordingly, a high price can not last for long time. It is possible to raise the cost only artificially and only for a short period of time. What actually happened," – the source said.
He does not exclude that the fall in oil prices will affect the prices for Ukrainian consumers.
"But we can not say that the mere fact of fall of oil prices will bring Ukraine some benefits. If this trend continues and, at least until the end of the year, the price of oil is in the range of $40-50 per barrel, then, of course, for us it will be a positive thing. First of all, in this case we could expect lower prices for petroleum products on the domestic market. Hypothetically, the natural gas price could be lower. However, the state will want to use this price difference and to benefit. For example, the excise tax on petroleum products can be increased. In this case, the prices for consumers will not change," Gonchar concluded.
On May, 4, the price of Brent crude oil dropped below the psychological level of $50 per barrel.
At the end of November 2016, the OPEC decided to cut production by 1.2 million barrels to 32.5 million a day, after which the oil price jumped. The decision of the OPEC pledged to implement several major oil producers outside the cartel, including Russia.
In February 2017, the price of oil began to fall due to the increase in drilling activity and production in the United States. The number of drilling rigs in the US increased by eight units to 591 from 6th to 10th Feb 2017. It was the highest number since October 2015.
