OPEC output increases just 10,000 barrels per day in August: Survey

OPEC's 11 members pumped a total 30.26 million barrels per day (mmbpd) of crude in August, just 10,000 bpd more than their collective output in July, a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials showed September 9.

Excluding Iraq, the ten members with quotas produced an average 28.37-mmbpd in August, 80,000 bpd above July's 28.29-mmbpd, the survey showed.

"It is becoming increasingly obvious that in the short term most OPEC countries cannot produce much more than they are doing," said John Kingston, global director of oil at Platts. "We are seeing very small increments even though prices are higher, in nominal terms, than they have ever been."

"But with Katrina, we're in uncharted waters for the entire oil sector," Kingston said. "You have the obvious factors that will drive prices higher, such as the loss of Gulf of Mexico crude. But you have a price-driven decline in demand, sale of crude from strategic reserves, and refineries down. We are hearing the occasional report of other grades of crude, amazingly, looking for homes. So the surge in the call on OPEC crude might not be quite as severe as might have been predicted a week ago."

Among the so-called OPEC-10, the biggest single increase came from Saudi Arabia, whose output rose by 50,000 bpd to 9.55-mmbpd. Other smaller increases totaling 40,000 bpd came from Algeria, Qatar and the UAE, while Venezuelan output declined by 10,000 bpd to 2.62-mmbpd.

The only other country to show a decline was Iraq, whose overall exports were down on the previous month, and whose average production in August the survey estimated at 1.89-mmbpd.

Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Libya and Nigeria maintained output at July levels. (*)

Country-by-country breakdown of production with figures in millions of bpd:

Country	Aug 05	July 05	June 05	May 05	Apr 05	July 01 Quota
Algeria	1.350	1.340	1.330	1.310	1.300	0.894
Indonesia	0.940	0.940	0.950	0.950	0.950	1.451
Iran	4.000	4.000	3.990	3.980	3.950	4.110
Iraq	1.890	1.960	1.850	1.820	1.860	N/A
Kuwait	2.550	2.550	2.550	2.550	2.500	2.247
Libya	1.650	1.650	1.630	1.630	1.620	1.500
Nigeria	2.450	2.450	2.450	2.400	2.370	2.306
Qatar	0.790	0.780	0.780	0.780	0.780	0.726
Saudi Arabia	9.550	9.500	9.500	9.550	9.500	9.099
UAE	2.470	2.450	2.430	2.400	2.450	2.444
Venezuela	2.620	2.630	2.640	2.650	2.680	3.223
Total	30.260	30.250	30.100	30.020	29.960	N/A
OPEC 10 (excluding Iraq)	28.370	28.290	28.250	28.200	28.100	28.000