Following a shocking decision of Britain to leave the EU, the OPEC Reference Basket (ORB), a weighted average of prices for crude oil blends produced by OPEC countries, fell by more than $1 amid the ongoing turmoil on commodities markets. Prior to the EU referendum, the final polls showed Remain with a significant lead and markets were sure that the UK would not leave the bloc. So the result was a big surprise to investors and economists, thus causing crude oil price to fall by 6%. On Monday, crude oil price fell on all commodity exchanges. Thus, the ICE Brent crude futures for August delivery edged down by 0.27% to $48.28 a barrel. Meanwhile, NYMEX West Texas Intermediate crude oil price for August delivery dropped by 0.57% to $47.37 a barrel. “Everything is caught up in Brexit,” said Evan Lucas, a market strategist at IG Ltd. in Melbourne. “The oil fundamentals for the moment will be put to one side as markets try to figure out exactly how this will all work. ”The OPEC basket was introduced on January 1, 1987. It includes 13 varieties of crude oil produced by OPEC countries. Its lowest price of $140.73 a barrel was reached on July 3, 2008.
