OPEC TEN Crude Output Fell 80,000 b/d in October to 27.73 Million b/d

Platts

Crude production from the 10 OPEC members bound by the cartel's output agreements fell to 27.73 million b/d in October, down 80,000 b/d from September output of 27.81 million b/d, a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials showed November 9.

Including Iraq, which does not participate in output pacts and whose production and exports tend to fluctuate, total OPEC output was 29.75 million b/d in October compared with 29.95 million b/d in September, the survey showed.

Iraq, whose October volumes dropped to 2.02 million b/d from September's 2.14 million b/d, accounted for the bulk of the 200,000 b/d drop in overall output, with smaller decreases of 50,000 b/d coming from Iran, 30,000 b/d from Saudi Arabia, and 10,000 b/d each from Kuwait and Venezuela.

Production was largely unchanged in Indonesia, Nigeria, Qatar and the UAE, while Algeria and Libya showed small increases of 10,000 b/d each.

OPEC agreed at emergency talks in Qatar on October 19-20 to remove 1.2 million b/d of excess supply from world oil markets. The group said the cuts would be made from a baseline level of 27.5 million b/d which, it said, represented actual OPEC-10 output in September. The group said it was targeting production of 26.3 million b/d from the beginning of November. It listed the cut volume for each country, but did not give the starting points for individual cuts or give individual target output levels.

"As the latest estimates show, OPEC-10 production levels have not changed much in October," said John Kingston, Director of Oil at energy news service Platts. "The big question now is whether the group will be able to achieve anything like the 1.2 million b/d cut it has pledged to implement from the beginning of November. One of the difficulties for OPEC watchers is the fact that few countries have given precise details of how they are going to cut production."


    Country            October September August   July      June   Quota*

    Algeria            1.370     1.360   1.350    1.350     1.350   0.894
    Indonesia          0.860     0.860   0.860    0.900     0.920   1.451
    Iran               3.900     3.950   3.950    3.870     3.790   4.110
    Iraq               2.020     2.140   2.000    2.060     2.120     N/A
    Kuwait             2.530     2.540   2.540    2.540     2.540   2.247
    Libya              1.730     1.720   1.710    1.700     1.690   1.500
    Nigeria            2.300     2.300   2.300    2.200     2.350   2.306
    Qatar              0.830     0.830   0.830    0.820     0.820   0.726
    Saudi Arabia       9.070     9.100   9.280    9.250     9.250   9.099
    UAE                2.600     2.600   2.600    2.600     2.570   2.444
    Venezuela          2.540     2.550   2.490    2.400     2.550   3.223
    Total             29.750    29.950  29.910   29.690     9.950     N/A
    OPEC-10           27.730    27.810  27.910   27.630    27.830  28.000

    * These notional quotas were set in June 2005.

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