September 08, 2008

OPEC pumps 32.33 million BPD in February 2008

According to a Platts survey of OPEC, the 13 members of OPEC pumped an average 32.33 million barrels per day of crude oil in February 2008 up by 80,000 barrel a day increase on January 2008 levels. However, production from the 12 countries, excluding Iraq, bound by output allocations fell to 29.93 million barrel a day in February 2008 from 29.96 million barrel a day in January 2008.

Mr John Kingston Platts global director of oil said that "It used to be that when prices would soar, OPEC discipline would gradually break down and more supply would come on the market. When you look at numbers like this soaring prices accompanied by minor increases in output it's a sign of very strong discipline but with a significant mix of the apparent inability of many of these member countries to put more oil on the market. For most of them, they are simply tapped out."

Despite the 30,000 barrels a day drop, the OPEC 12 still exceeded their 29.673 million barrels a day collective output target by 257,000 barrels a day. Output increases totaling 190,000 barrels a day from Angola, Indonesia and Iraq were partly offset by decreases totaling 110,000 barrels a day from Ecuador, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Iraq, which does not participate in OPEC output accords, boosted production to 2.4 million barrels a day in February 2008 from 2.29 million barrels a day in January 2008.

OPEC ministers decided to leave official output targets unchanged, ignoring pleas from major consuming countries for more oil and attributing record prices of more than USD 100 per barrel to factors beyond fundamentals of supply and demand.

OPEC is next scheduled to meet on September 9th 2008, but ministers have said that there could be informal talks on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum in April 2008 in Rome.