On the New York commodities exchange, the price of American oil barrel fell, on Monday, to around $34.7, near the lowest level recorded a decade ago, writes Reuters. Thursday, things were just a little brighter, the price closing at $34.95.

Following the downward trend, on the other side of the Atlantic, on the London commodities exchange, the Brent price diminished with 3.4% to $36.7/barrel, close to the lowest price recorded in December 2008, $36,2/barrel.

The conclusion is simple: OPEC group (namely Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states) maintains the assault for market share at the expense of producers not part of the cartel.

If the Brent oil will bring down the threshold, then will be recorded the lowest price of oil since mid-2004, notes Agerpres. In case of US quotation, the minimum reached during the financial crisis of 2008 was $32.40/barrel.

The maintaining of OPEC production at high levels will be completed next year with Iran’s return to international markets, an element that could further aggravate the poor evolution of the reference prices in the past year and a half.

“In addition to the quantities removed from storage units, Iran will be able to increase exports of oil and condensate with maximum 700,000 barrels per day by the end of 2016,” say analysts at BMI Research. Also, analysts at Morgan Stanley estimate that next year OPEC oil supply would grow by one million barrels per day.

Producers of oil from the Persian Gulf and Russia have warned that they will not reduce production even when the oil barrel price will drop to 20 dollars, noted Agerpres.