Platts Survey: OPEC Pumps 30.5 mb/d in July, up 280,000 b/d

Platts Survey: OPEC Pumps 30.5 mb/d in July, up 280,000 b/d

August 13, 2007

    LONDON, Aug. 13 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- 

    The 12 members of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) pumped an average 30.5 million
b/d of crude in July, 280,000 b/d higher than June's 30.22
million b/d, a Platts ( http://www.platts.com/ ) survey
showed August 10.

    Production from the 10 members bound by output
agreements averaged 26.71 million b/d, up 110,000 b/d from
June's 26.6 million b/d, the survey showed.

    Iraq, struggling to rebuild its oil industry after
years of United Nations sanctions followed by a US-led war,
does not participate in OPEC output pacts. Nor, at this
stage, does Angola, which joined the producer group at the
beginning of this year, after the output curbs currently in
place were agreed.

    OPEC-10 production has not fallen anywhere near the
25.8 million b/d target that came into effect at the
beginning of February and has edged up over the past three
months. The latest estimates leave OPEC-10 production more
than 900,000 b/d above the notional ceiling.

    The biggest single output increase came from Iraq,
thanks to a recovery in exports from the south and some
exports of northern crude from Ceyhan on the Turkish
Mediterranean.

    "This is terrific news for consumers, as the world
is going to need this oil as we head toward the fourth
quarter, the period in which demand is at its
highest," said John Kingston, Platts Global Director
of Oil. "However, with the increase coming from Iraq,
it does raise the question over whether such a jump can be
sustained."

    Nigerian output also showed some recovery, with Shell
inching its way back into the 380,000 b/d Forcados field
and sending some workers back to abandoned flow stations in
the remote swamps around the Forcados terminal. The field
was shut in during February 2006 after militants bombed the
export terminal as part of a campaign to wrest greater
control of the country's oil resources.

    Other, smaller increases came from Angola, Iran, Qatar
and the UAE.

    OPEC is next scheduled to meet on September 11 in
Vienna but has given no indication that, despite the upward
drift in production, it may heed calls from the
International Energy Agency and the world's biggest oil
consumer, the United States, to boost output ahead of the
winter.

    Algeria's Minister for Energy and Mines Chakib Khelil
said last Saturday that there was, at the moment, "no
reason to increase or to decrease production," but
that OPEC would review the market at its upcoming meeting.

    "If there is a need to increase production, we
will increase and if there is a need to decrease, we will
decrease," he said, reiterating the view put forward
by other top OPEC officials that there is not a shortage of
crude but of refining capacity.


    Country          July      June    May      April    
March   Cut 

    Algeria          1.350     1.350   1.350    1.330    
1.330   0.084 
    Indonesia        0.830     0.830   0.840    0.840    
0.850   0.055 
    Iran             3.900     3.880   3.850    3.800    
3.800   0.249 
    Kuwait           2.420     2.420   2.420    2.410    
2.410   0.142 
    Libya            1.680     1.680   1.680    1.680    
1.680   0.102 
    Nigeria          2.150     2.080   2.050    2.200    
2.150   0.142 
    Qatar            0.810     0.800   0.800    0.790    
0.790   0.050 
    Saudi Arabia     8.610     8.610   8.610    8.600    
8.600   0.538 
    UAE              2.560     2.550   2.540    2.500    
2.500   0.143 
    Venezuela        2.400     2.400   2.420    2.420    
2.430   0.195 
    OPEC-10         26.710    26.600  26.560   26.570   
26.540   1.700 
    Angola*          1.670     1.640   1.630    1.580    
1.570     N/A
    Iraq             2.120     1.980   2.020    2.040    
2.000     N/A
    Total           30.500    30.220  30.210   30.190   
30.110         

    * Angola joined OPEC on January 1, 2007

    For more information on OPEC, go to the "Platts
Guide to OPEC" at http://www.opec.platts.com.

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