Crude prices slipped for the third straight day on Thursday amid bearish factors such as rising US crude oil inventories and a strong dollar. At 1240 hours GMT, Brent, the international benchmark for two-thirds of the world’s oil, shed $0.56 (-0.71 percent) to reach $78.08 a barrel. Similarly, the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) reached $74.01 a barrel, down by $0.82 (-1.10 percent). The price for Opec Basket was recorded at $78.37 a barrel with 0.82 percent increase, Arab Light was available at $77.40 a barrel with a 1.03 percent increase, while the price of Russian Sokol jumped to $77.75 after gaining 1.17 percent. Meanwhile, the secretary general of Opec said that Opec and non-Opec oil producers will need to boost efforts to accelerate the global oil market rebalancing process despite a recovery this year. Opec+, the group of producers led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, should remain “cautious and attentive” to an ever-evolving market situation, Mohammad Barkindo told an Opec+ joint technical committee meeting. “Constructive engagements in a transparent fashion, based on mutual respect among all participating countries [of the 2016 Declaration of Co-operation], remain key to our success,” he said. The technical committee met ahead of Opec’s Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) and the Opec and non-Opec ministerial meetings planned for Monday next week. Opec+ is bringing two million barrels per day of oil back to the market by the end of this year. It is set to decide in October whether to bring an additional 400,000 bpd of supply.