How OPEC managed to produce 30,122 tbpd of oil in October, which exceeded expected capacity of 29,840.
beacon1.rjf.com
It's called "surge capacity" and "water injection", and it damages fields.
atsnn.com
But what the hey, just add it to the pre-election money printing expediency and worry about the hangover and ill effects later:
Optimum capacity
gulf-news.com
The structural problems are in spare capacity and there is not much of that in the world today. Some of Opec's 11 members, including Iraq, are pumping at what is called surge capacity which is unsustainable. With Opec's production currently running at some 30 million barrels per day, there is very little extra crude oil that the group can bring on. Only the Saudis have any significant spare capacity but nobody is really sure how much.
Even the Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali Naimi said recently that nobody could tell for sure how much their optimum capacity is until they test it. In promising to take capacity up to 11-million bpd, the Saudis are basically throwing reservoir management out of the window for now to meet market demand. What would normally happen is that when new capacity is brought on, as was the case in Saudi Arabia this month, some of the older fields would be retired. This will not happen. Also, Saudi Arabia will now have to invest in further expanding its capacity and it will take time and a big investment to bring on new oil.
ogje.pennnet.com
Nigeria
Nigeria's oil production capacity, which the CGES currently estimates at 2.55 million b/d, is expected to reach 2.6 million b/d by the end of the year, possibly rising a further 200,000 b/d in 2005.
"However, it must be asked whether this capacity is sustainable. August saw 250,000-300,000 b/d shut in just to protect the aging onshore oil fields and infrastructure after production reached surge capacity levels in response to high prices |
