OPEC Pumped 29.22 m Barrels of Oil per Day
The 12-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) crude oil production output averaged 29.22 million barrels per day (b/d) in July. It’s up 100,000 b/d from an estimated 29.12 million b/d in June, according to a just-released Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials and analysts.
Excluding Iraq, which does not participate in OPEC output agreements, the 11 members bound by quotas (OPEC-11) under a target of 24.845 million b/d boosted output by 80,000 b/d to 26.82 million b/d for the month, the survey said.
This exceeded the OPEC-11 target by 1.975 million b/d and puts the group’s compliance rate at 53%, with the 4.2 million-barrel-per-day production cuts agreed to in late 2008 (and effective as of January 2009).
“It’s true that the world oil market generally consumes more oil in the second half of the year than the first, but an increase in OPEC supply at this time may be adding to a market balance that the member countries may find troublesome in a few months,” said John Kingston, Platts global director of news.
“Even with the price of oil topping $80 per barrel, there are currently signs of weakness and excess supply showing up in different parts of the market.”
Volume increases totalling 200,000 b/d from Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Venezuela and Iraq were partly offset by 100,000 b/d of decreases from Angola and Iran.
Nigeria showed the biggest single increase, boosting output by 110,000 b/d to 2.12 million b/d, according to the survey. Angola’s output dropped by 90,000 b/d to 1.75 million b/d.
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