“He who picks bottoms gets smelly fingers”
The Iraqi oil minister thinks that the price has found a floor and says it’s hard to go lower. He also said that there’s no economic justification for the continuous fall in prices and such a steep fall wasn’t expected after the November OPEC meeting. He adds that oil at $40-45 was not in their calculations.
Kuwait says that the countries 2015 budget is expected to be based on an oil price of around $40-45 and that prices can’t be controlled until better economic growth soaks up the oversupply.
There’s going to be a lot of re-working of budget numbers by oil producing countries this year.
The WSJ had a chart of the numbers needed to balance budgets for 2014
![Oil producer budget prices](http://az705044.vo.msecnd.net/20150121/WO-AU057A_OPEC_G_20141010180306.jpg)
Oil producer budget prices
Brent continues to hover around the 48.50 mark and continues to walk the short term support line
![Brent crude H1 chart 21 01 2015](http://az705044.vo.msecnd.net/20150121/Brent-crude-H1-chart-21-01-2015.png)
Brent crude H1 chart 21 01 2015