Brent oil price dips to new low on eve of OPEC meeting

ANKARA

Brent crude oil price dipped to a new four-year low below $77 per barrel on Thursday morning on the eve of the OPEC meeting to discuss setting of production quotas against falling oil prices since June.

The leading global benchmark for oil trading fell to $76.28 per barrel on Thursday morning, the lowest point since October 2010, according to official figures.

The Brent crude oil price fell more than 30 percent since June, from $115 per barrel to below $80 in November and reached its lowest point at $76.74 per barrel on Nov. 14.

The prices fluctuated between $78 and $80 per barrel in the last two weeks before major oil powers' unofficial talks on Tuesday did not generate any definite outcome.

Non-OPEC oil producing countries, Russia and Mexico, met with Saudi Arabia and Venezuela on Tuesday to push for a cut in oil production to increase the prices, but the meeting ended without any resolution.

OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq, who also have some of the lowest oil production costs in the world, indicated earlier they would not cut their oil production volumes - a move to preserve their market shares.

Saudi Arabia and Iraq also stated that they would lower their oil sales price to U.S. buyers in order to compete with the domestic shale oil producers in the country, which contributed to the rapid fall, according to oil experts.

Meanwhile, other OPEC countries led by Venezuela are leaning towards cutting production in order to increase oil prices to preserve their oil-revenue-dependent economies from further damage.

The highly-anticipated OPEC meeting that will take place in Vienna on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. CET is expected to shed some light on the oil cartel's strategy against the decline in oil prices.

The low global demand for oil, slow growth rate of Asian and European economies, the increasing value of the U.S. dollar straining the purchasing power of oil-dependent countries and the rise in U.S. shale oil production are considered as long-term factors responsible for the price slump since June.