OPEC output up 250,000 BPD in May: Survey

OPEC's eleven members, including Iraq, pumped an average 26.61-million barrels per day (BPD) in May, up 250,000 BPD from April's 26.36-mil BPD, a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials released Monday.

Excluding Iraq, whose output was estimated to have risen from 50,000 BPD in April to 260,000 BPD in May, the survey showed that the ten members with quotas produced 26.35 million BPD to exceed their official 24.5 million BPD ceiling by 1.85 million BPD.

These ten will have to reduce output by 950,000 BPD to meet their new, higher ceiling of 25.4 million BPD, which came into effect Jun 1. When OPEC agreed the higher ceiling at an Apr 24 "consultative" conference, it said that although official quotas were being raised, actual production would fall.

But the survey showed that most countries increased output in May. Saudi Arabia was the only member to reduce production, albeit by only 100,000 BPD.

Riyadh pumped an average 9.1 million BPD in May, which means it will have to slash output by a further 844,000 BPD in June to meet its new 8.256 million BPD quota.

Only three members produced within their quotas in May -- Indonesia, Nigeria, and Venezuela. Indonesia's output is declining, while production levels in Nigeria and Venezuela have been affected in recent months by ethnic unrest and strike action.

"Instead of reining in overproduction towards their new quotas, most OPEC countries have actually increased production. With WTI around $30 per barrel and Brent around $27 per barrel, there has been little incentive for them to cut back," said John Kingston, global director of oil at Platts. "Some OPEC officials have talked about cutting official quota levels at the June 11 meeting in Doha, Qatar. But that looks unlikely now."

Iraq, working to boost production after the US-led war, produced an average 260,000 BPD in May, according to the survey. The country's de facto oil minister Thamir Ghadban said earlier this week that output had risen to around 750,000 BPD and was expected to reach 1.5 million BPD by mid-June.

OPEC's crude basket stood at $26.72 per barrel Jun 4.

Earlier Jun 5, Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization issued a tender for the sale of 12 million barrels of crude stored at Ceyhan in Turkey and at Iraq's southern port Mina al-Bakr. (*)

Country-by-country breakdown of production with figures in millions of BPD:
Country	May 03	Apr 03	Mar 03	Feb 03	Feb 03 Quota	June 03 Quota
Algeria	1.140	1.120	1.110	1.050	0.782	0.811
Indonesia	1.030	1.030	1.040	1.080	1.270	1.317
Iran	3.680	3.680	3.760	3.690	3.597	3.729
Iraq	0.260	0.050	1.440	2.510	N/A	N/A
Kuwait	2.300	2.300	2.300	2.000	1.966	2.038
Libya	1.430	1.420	1.410	1.400	1.312	1.360
Nigeria	1.920	1.850	1.930	2.180	2.018	2.092
Qatar	0.760	0.760	0.760	0.750	0.635	0.658
Saudi Arabia	9.100	9.200	9.460	8.470	7.963	8.256
UAE	2.300	2.280	2.290	2.140	2.138	2.217
Venezuela	2.670	2.670	2.280	1.490	2.819	2.923
Total	26.610	26.360	27.780	27.030	N/A	N/A
OPEC 10 (excluding IRAQ)	26.350	26.310	26.340	24.520	24.500	25.400