LONDON, May 10 /CNW/ -- The 10 members of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) bound by the group's output agreements produced an
average 26.57 million barrels of crude oil per day in April, a Platts survey
showed May 10. This is up 30,000 barrels per day (b/d) from March's 26.54
million b/d and 770,000 b/d above their 25.8 million b/d production target
established last month.
"But these numbers have to be viewed as worrisome for consumers," said
John Kingston, Platts global director of oil. "Although the International
Energy Agency (IEA) projects that OPEC only needs to supply the market with
29.3 million b/d in the second quarter to keep inventories balanced, from a
full-year perspective it must supply about 30.4 million b/d," he explained,
with the heaviest supply needs coming in the third and fourth quarters
respectively, of 30.5 million b/d and more than 31 million p/d.
"So OPEC has to add a significant amount of supply in the market, just to
keep inventories from declining further later this year," Kingston said. "And
those estimates don't include any extra surge of OPEC oil that would be needed
should the US Gulf of Mexico get hit by a significant hurricane in the coming
months."
Total production from all 12 members, including Iraq which does not
participate in OPEC output pacts and Angola which joined the group at the
beginning of this year, rose by 80,000 b/d to 30.19 million b/d, the survey
estimated.
Small drops in output from Indonesia and Venezuela totaling 20,000 b/d
were more than offset by increases totaling 100,000 b/d from Nigeria, Iraq and
Angola, the survey showed.
OPEC ministers agreed last October to remove 1.2 million b/d of crude
from world oil markets from November 2006, saying supply was well in excess of
demand and setting a production target of 26.3 million b/d. In December, they
agreed to expand the cut by 500,000 b/d from February. The cuts were based on
estimated September production of 27.5 million b/d.
Although OPEC compliance with its 1.7 million b/d total cut has fallen
well short of 100%, world crude benchmarks have been holding above $60/barrel.
The latest Platts survey shows that the OPEC-10 have cut supply by some 1.24
million b/d since September, when Platts estimates pegged production at 27.81
million b/d.Country April March Feb Jan Dec Cut
Algeria 1.330 1.330 1.330 1.340 1.350 0.084
Indonesia 0.840 0.850 0.840 0.860 0.860 0.055
Iran 3.800 3.800 3.800 3.850 3.850 0.249
Kuwait 2.410 2.410 2.410 2.460 2.460 0.142
Libya 1.680 1.680 1.680 1.690 1.700 0.102
Nigeria 2.200 2.150 2.250 2.250 2.230 0.142
Qatar 0.790 0.790 0.790 0.800 0.800 0.050
Saudi Arabia 8.600 8.600 8.600 8.750 8.790 0.538
UAE 2.500 2.500 2.490 2.500 2.500 0.143
Venezuela 2.420 2.430 2.430 2.450 2.460 0.195
OPEC-10 26.570 26.540 26.620 26.950 27.000 1.700
Angola(*) 1.580 1.570 1.550 1.500 N/A N/A
Iraq 2.040 2.000 2.010 1.660 1.900
Total 30.190 30.110 30.180 30.110 28.900
(*) Angola joined OPEC on January 1, 2007.
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