VIENNA – The basket of crude oil used as a benchmark indicator by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries went up to $44.79, the OPEC Secretariat said on Wednesday.

OPEC said the price of its basket increased by $0.02 on Tuesday compared with the closing price at the previous session.

This minimal rise breaks the downward path that prevailed over the previous four sessions, and has led OPEC black gold to lose almost 6 percent of its value.

The September delivery of Brent crude opened at $48.36 per barrel at the start of Wednesday’s trading on the futures market, a 1.7 percent increase since the previous session’s close.