OPEC Output Increases Just 10,000 Barrels Per Day in August
LONDON, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ — OPEC’s 11 members pumped a total 30.26 million barrels per day (mil b/d) of crude in August, just 10,000 b/d more than their collective output in July, a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials showed September 9.
Excluding Iraq, the ten members with quotas produced an average 28.37-mil b/d in August, 80,000 b/d above July’s 28.29-mil b/d, the survey showed.
"It is becoming increasingly obvious that in the short term most OPEC countries cannot produce much more than they are doing," said John Kingston, global director of oil at Platts. "We are seeing very small increments even though prices are higher, in nominal terms, than they have ever been."
"But with Katrina, we’re in uncharted waters for the entire oil sector," Kingston said. "You have the obvious factors that will drive prices higher, such as the loss of Gulf of Mexico crude. But you have a price-driven decline in demand, sale of crude from strategic reserves, and refineries down. We are hearing the occasional report of other grades of crude, amazingly, looking for homes. So the surge in the call on OPEC crude might not be quite as severe as might have been predicted a week ago."
Among the so-called OPEC-10, the biggest single increase came from Saudi Arabia, whose output rose by 50,000 b/d to 9.55-mil b/d. Other smaller increases totaling 40,000 b/d came from Algeria, Qatar and the UAE, while Venezuelan output declined by 10,000 b/d to 2.62-mil b/d.
The only other country to show a decline was Iraq, whose overall exports were down on the previous month, and whose average production in August the survey estimated at 1.89-mil b/d.
Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Libya and Nigeria maintained output at July levels.
Country-by-country breakdown of production with figures in millions of b/d: Country Aug 05 July 05 June 05 May 05 Apr 05 July 1 Quota Algeria 1.350 1.340 1.330 1.310 1.300 0.894 Indonesia 0.940 0.940 0.950 0.950 0.950 1.451 Iran 4.000 4.000 3.990 3.980 3.950 4.110 Iraq 1.890 1.960 1.850 1.820 1.860 N/A Kuwait 2.550 2.550 2.550 2.550 2.500 2.247 Libya 1.650 1.650 1.630 1.630 1.620 1.500 Nigeria 2.450 2.450 2.450 2.400 2.370 2.306 Qatar 0.790 0.780 0.780 0.780 0.780 0.726 Saudi Arabia 9.550 9.500 9.500 9.550 9.500 9.099 UAE 2.470 2.450 2.430 2.400 2.450 2.444 Venezuela 2.620 2.630 2.640 2.650 2.680 3.223 Total 30.260 30.250 30.100 30.020 29.960 N/A OPEC 10 (excluding Iraq) 28.370 28.290 28.250 28.200 28.100 28.000
For more information on OPEC, go to the "Platts Guide to OPEC" at http://www.platts.com/Oil/Resources/News%20Features/opec/index.xml.
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