LONDON, May 9 /CNW/ -- The 13 members of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) pumped an average 31.87 million barrels per day
(b/d) of crude oil in April, a 350,000 b/d decrease from March, according to a
Platts (http://www.platts.com/) survey of OPEC and oil industry officials
released Friday. The sharp drop was largely the result of steep output losses
in Nigeria.
Excluding Iraq, the 12 members which participate in output agreements
pumped an average 29.49 million b/d, 360,000 b/d down from an estimated 29.85
million b/d in March.
"OPEC production has been relatively steady in recent months, but the
sharp fall in Nigerian output shows how vulnerable overall supply from the
group can be to developments in one country," said John Kingston, Platts
global director of oil. "Given that spare capacity is also relatively tight,
any disruption has a bigger impact on markets."
Ongoing losses in Nigerian supply as a result of continuing strife in the
Niger Delta were exacerbated by a week-long pay strike at ExxonMobil, which
shut down most of the company's 800,000 b/d of production and forced it to
declare force majeure on exports from the 400,000 b/d Qua Iboe terminal.
Other smaller decreases came from Angola, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and
Venezuela.
Iraqi volumes were a shade higher at 2.38 million b/d, with a slight dip
in exports offset by slightly higher internal supply. Libyan output also edged
up, to 1.75 million b/d from 1.74 million b/d in March.
The latest estimates show the OPEC-12 missing their 29.673 million b/d
output target by 183,000 b/d.Platts OPEC Survey 2008
Country April March February January Target
Algeria 1.390 1.390 1.390 1.390 1.357
Angola 1.850 1.900 1.900 1.850 1.900
Ecuador 0.500 0.500 0.490 0.500 0.520
Indonesia 0.860 0.860 0.860 0.830 0.865
Iran 3.940 3.960 3.930 3.980 3.817
Kuwait 2.550 2.550 2.550 2.550 2.531
Libya 1.750 1.740 1.740 1.740 1.712
Nigeria 1.800 2.020 2.100 2.100 2.163
Qatar 0.830 0.840 0.830 0.830 0.828
Saudi Arabia 9.100 9.150 9.150 9.200 8.943
UAE 2.590 2.590 2.590 2.590 2.567
Venezuela 2.330 2.350 2.400 2.400 2.470
OPEC-12 29.490 29.850 29.930 29.960 29.673
Iraq 2.380 2.370 2.400 2.290 N/A
Total 31.870 32.220 32.330 32.250For more information on OPEC, go to the "Platts Guide to OPEC" at
http://www.opec.platts.com.About Platts:Platts, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), is a leading
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