World 'pumping oil at full tilt'
Upstream, March 6
Spare world oil production capacity, excluding Iraq and Venezuela, may be as low as 1.5 million barrels per day, the US Energy Information Administration said today.
That leaves little room for other countries to make up Iraq's lost oil exports if the US launches an attack on the country, Reuters reported.
Opec is pumping at almost full production, with output averaging 24.5 million bpd in February, to offset the disruption in Venezuela's oil exports due to the strike there and to get ready for the potential cut-off in Iraq's oil shipments in a war, the EIA said in its monthly energy outlook.
Even if the situation in Venezuela and Iraq are resolved without further oil disruptions, the additional pressure on commercial oil inventories of industrialised nations since early December will likely cause oil stocks to remain near the lower end of the five-year average through most of 2003.
"Months may also be needed to reach full Venezuelan production levels, resulting in new five-year lows in (industrialised nations') commercial inventories in the second quarter," the agency said.
However, the EIA said separately that US crude stocks by the end of March are forecast to rise 8.4 million barrels to 282 million barrels, but gasoline stocks will decline 8.1 million barrels to 198 million. |
