Expert: Oil may exceed $40 this week

"On March 18, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will hold a meeting. This meeting should formulate new recommendations on oil volumes for the period after March," head of the Oil Research Center, economist and expert Ilham Shaban told Report.

According to him, only a week is left until this date, and oil prices have already risen by 7% since yesterday: "The shock effect is passing. As a result, we will witness that prices will exceed $40 this week."

The expert notes that already at the end of March, the oil price will be set at between $45-50/barrel: "It was a shock effect. In the future, market participants will take more cool-headed steps. Earlier, the price of one barrel was about $51-52. Under the current conditions, the price of a barrel of oil at $45-50 is more acceptable for the market. Although today the world economy is experiencing a decline. We believe that the current price also reflects the present realities."

The head of the Oil Research Center believes that with such an oil price, there will be no need to revise the state budget of Azerbaijan. According to the new budget rules of the Ministry of Finance, the decline in the price of oil to $40 means a reduction in budget revenues by 1.6%, which will make nearly AZN 400 million. And this is a relatively small number."