By DPA,
Vienna : The price for oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) fell by $1.79 Tuesday, although the cartel is expected to approve a drastic cut of oil production during a meeing Wednesday in the Algerian city of Oran.
Opec’s basket price of crude oil stood at $40.74 per barrel (159 litres) Tuesday, the Vienna-based cartel announced Wednesday.
With global oil demand falling this year for the first time since 1983 and Opec forecasting a decline for 2009 as well, the cartel’s oil ministers are expected to slash production by up to two million barrels per day to shore up the price of oil.