WOW! Flat out they came up with an extra 100,000 barrels.
Opec production rises close to 26-year highs
NEW YORK/SINGAPORE: Crude-oil production by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries rose close to a 26-year high in September, as members scrapped their quotas and agreed to pump as much as they could, a Bloomberg survey showed.
Daily production last month rose an average of 100,000 barrels, or 0.3%, to 30.51mn barrels, according to the survey of oil companies, producers and analysts. It was 30,000 barrels less than the 30.54mn they produced October 2004, the highest since 1979, based on US Energy Department records.
Opec members at a meeting in Vienna last month suspended their quota system for the first time since the 1990 Gulf War, after prices surged because of damage and supply disruptions in the US caused by Hurricane Katrina.
Crude oil in New York touched a record $70.85 a barrel on August 30, the day after Katrina made landfall.
“When prices are this strong Opec members will pump as much as they can,’’ said Rick Mueller, an analyst with Energy Security Analysis Inc in Tilburg, the Netherlands.
Iraqi production in September rose 185,000 barrels to an average 2.06mn bpd, the highest since October. It was the biggest increase of among the 11 Opec members.
Iraq’s exports averaged 1.63mn bpd in September, up 13% from the prior month. Shipments from the southern fields through the Basra and Khor al Amaya terminals in the Persian Gulf rose 60,000 barrels to an average 1.48mn bpd, according to the survey. Exports from northern Iraq jumped to 148,000bpd from 44,000 in August.
“Iraq is a security issue,’’ Mueller said. “Production and exports will fluctuate greatly until the security situation improves.’’
Iran, Opec’s second-biggest producer, cut output by an average of 100,000 barrels to 3.98mn a day last month. Royal Dutch Shell Plc had to shut 90,000 of crude-oil production at the Nowruz field in late August because of technical problems.
Output resumed in mid-September. Oil companies in Nigeria cut production by 25,000bpd because of unrest in the Niger River Delta. Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, pumped an average 2.43mn bpd last month, making it Opec’s sixth-biggest producer.
Saudi Arabia, Opec’s biggest member and the world’s top oil exporter, produced an average 9.58mn bpd, unchanged from a month earlier, according to the survey. Saudi Aramco, the state-owned energy company, is cutting output this month because of weak demand in the US, where refineries are shuttered in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Aramco has also lowered prices for a third month for most of its crude oil to be shipped to Asia in November as supplies rise.
The shutting of several US refineries including Exxon Mobil Corp’s Beaumont and Motiva Enterprises’s Port Arthur plants because of Hurricane Rita almost two weeks ago cut demand for crude oil. – Bloomberg |
