OPEC pumps 25.83-mil BPD in December: Survey

OPEC produced 25.83 million barrels per day (BPD) of crude in December, down 970,000 BPD from November's 26.8-mil BPD, a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials showed Wednesday. The large month-to- month fall was due largely to Iraq, whose exports fell considerably in December.

Excluding Iraq, which does not have an OPEC quota, the other ten members pumped an average 23.81-mil BPD, a 190,000 BPD decrease on their November average of 24-mil BPD which left them 599,000 BPD above their self-imposed 23.201- mil BPD output ceiling. That ceiling was superseded at the beginning of January by a new lower ceiling of 21.701-mil BPD following OPEC's Dec 28 meeting in Cairo, Egypt, at which ministers decided to implement the 1.5-mil BPD cut agreed in November and made conditional on a combined cut of 500,000 BPD from non-OPEC producers.

Five independent producers--Mexico, Russia, Norway, Oman and Angola--offered cuts totaling 462,500 BPD which OPEC welcomed. Analysts said OPEC was unlikely to achieve anything close to the 2.1-mil BPD cut it would have to make this month in order to comply with its new ceiling. Indonesia, whose oil production has been steadily falling, was the only country to produce within quota in December.

Other countries exceeded their quotas by volumes ranging from a few thousand barrels in the case of the UAE to as much as 239,000 BPD in the case of Nigeria, a persistent cheater. Apart from Libya, which maintained output at November levels, and Kuwait, whose production rose slightly, most countries decreased output. Iraq accounted for the single biggest drop--780, 000 BPD--while other decreases ranged between 10,000 BPD and 70,000 BPD.(*)