OPEC output up 290,000 barrels per day in February: Report

Oil cartel OPEC took advantage of continuing high oil prices in February to boost crude production, ignoring a December pledge to remove overproduction beyond the official 27 million barrel per day (mmbpd) output ceiling, a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials showed March 8.

Total OPEC output averaged 29.58-mmbpd in February, an increase of 290,000 bpd from January's 29.29-mmbpd. Excluding Iraq, whose output was unchanged from January at 1.85-mmbpd, the ten members with quotas pumped an average 27.73-mmbpd in February, up 290,000 bpd from January's 27.44-mmbpd.

"Higher prices inevitably lead to higher production, no matter what the official line on restraint might be," said John Kingston, global director of oil at Platts. "It is considered all but an impossibility that OPEC will cut production at its meeting next week in Iran, and it may be that market conditions by themselves are taking care of the consuming nations' need for more supply. That's what these numbers seem to show."

The biggest single increase came from Saudi Arabia, which raised production by 150,000 bpd to 9.25-mmbpd despite having previously announced that it was producing around 9-mmbpd in line with its December pledge.

Other smaller increases totaling 160,000 bpd came from Iran, Kuwait, Nigeria and the UAE. Only one country reduced output, Venezuelan production slipping to 2.68-mmbpd in February from 2.7-mmbpd in January.

The latest estimates leave the so-called OPEC-10 overproducing their current 27-mmbpd ceiling by 730,000 bpd, and would appear to indicate that OPEC has abandoned its December agreement to remove around 1-mmbpd of oversupply from the market.

That agreement was made in Cairo in early December when ministers were spooked by the 25 percent drop in oil prices over the previous few weeks and decided to rein in leakage above official output limits. In January, OPEC-10 production fell by 470,000 bpd.

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

Country	February 2005	January 2005	December 2004	November 2004	October 2004	September 2005	Quota
Algeria	1.290	1.290	1.290	1.280	1.270	1.260	0.862
Indonesia	0.960	0.960	0.960	0.950	0.950	0.950	1.399
Iran	3.930	3.900	3.900	3.950	3.950	3.980	3.964
Iraq	1.850	1.850	1.840	1.800	2.200	2.100	N/A
Kuwait	2.430	2.400	2.420	2.420	2.420	2.380	2.167
Libya	1.610	1.610	1.630	1.610	1.610	1.610	1.446
Nigeria	2.350	2.300	2.280	2.380	2.400	2.380	2.224
Qatar	0.780	0.780	0.800	0.800	0.800	0.800	0.700
Saudi Arabia	9.250	9.100	9.500	9.500	9.550	9.580	8.775
UAE	2.450	2.400	2.480	2.480	2.500	2.500	2.356
Venezuela	2.680	2.700	2.650	2.650	2.650	2.650	3.107
Total	29.580	29.290	29.750	29.820	30.300	30.190	N/A
OPEC 10 (excluding Iraq)	27.730	27.440	27.910	28.020	28.100	28.090	27.000

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