OPEC output down 820,000 BPD in January: Survey
Monday, February 11 2002 - 01:53 PM WIB
Some participants said the results of the OPEC 10's efforts to reduce output in January were better than expected, given the fact the group's decision to implement the Jan 1 cut was confirmed as late as Dec 28. Still, the output-cutting members exceeded their new 21.701 million BPD ceiling by 1.049 million BPD.
``There's still a lot of work for OPEC to do to bring its production down to a level where it balances demand,'' said John Kingston, Platts Global Director of Oil. ``The cuts were substantial, but still remain higher than projected. Even Indonesia, which has had problems producing its full quota, is now over its OPEC limit. So it will be a daunting task.''
Kingston also noted that the International Energy Agency Friday said projected demand for OPEC crude in the second quarter of this year, given forecasted demand and non-OPEC production, would be 24.4million BPD. ``The group is about 600,000 BPD over that, and Russian exports are not down to the level that the country said it would cut to in support of OPEC.''
Iraq, whose exports are controlled by the UN and does not have an OPEC quota, was the only member to raise production in January. All other members reduced production, but all still exceeded their new quotas.
The biggest single output cut was Saudi Arabia's 300,000 BPD but the Kingdom overproduced its new 7.053million BPD quota by 247,000 BPD. Iran cut output by 190,000 BPD but will have to cut by a further 94,000 BPD in February if it is to meet its new 3.186million BPD quota.
Other sizeable output cuts came from Nigeria, which whipped 150,000 BPD off its December volumes but which overproduced its new 1.787million BPD quota by 213,000 BPD, and from Venezuela, whose 140,000 BPD reduction left it 63,000 BPD above its new 2.497million BPD quota. Other smaller cuts ranged between 10,000 BPD in the case of Algeria and Indonesia and 100,000 BPD in the case of Kuwait. (alex)