OPEC ten crude output fell 80,000 bpd in October: Survey

Crude production from the 10 OPEC members bound by the cartel's output agreements fell to 27.73 million barrels per day (mmbpd) in October, down 80,000 bpd from September output of 27.81 mmbpd, a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials showed November 9.

Including Iraq, which does not participate in output pacts and whose production and exports tend to fluctuate, total OPEC output was 29.75 mmbpd in October compared with 29.95 mmbpd in September, the survey showed.

Iraq, whose October volumes dropped to 2.02 mmbpd from September's 2.14 mmbpd, accounted for the bulk of the 200,000 bpd drop in overall output, with smaller decreases of 50,000 bpd coming from Iran, 30,000 bpd from Saudi Arabia, and 10,000 bpd each from Kuwait and Venezuela.

Production was largely unchanged in Indonesia, Nigeria, Qatar and the UAE, while Algeria and Libya showed small increases of 10,000 bpd each.

OPEC agreed at emergency talks in Qatar on October 19-20 to remove 1.2 mmbpd of excess supply from world oil markets. The group said the cuts would be made from a baseline level of 27.5 mmbpd which, it said, represented actual OPEC-10 output in September. The group said it was targeting production of 26.3 mmbpd from the beginning of November. It listed the cut volume for each country, but did not give the starting points for individual cuts or give individual target output levels.

"As the latest estimates show, OPEC-10 production levels have not changed much in October," said John Kingston, Director of Oil at energy news service Platts. "The big question now is whether the group will be able to achieve anything like the 1.2 mmbpd cut it has pledged to implement from the beginning of November. One of the difficulties for OPEC watchers is the fact that few countries have given precise details of how they are going to cut production." (*)

Country	October	September	August	July	June	Quota*
Algeria	1.370	1.360	1.350	1.350	1.350	0.894
Indonesia	0.860	0.860	0.860	0.900	0.920	1.451
Iran	3.900	3.950	3.950	3.870	3.790	4.110
Iraq	2.020	2.140	2.000	2.060	2.120	N/A
Kuwait	2.530	2.540	2.540	2.540	2.540	2.247
Libya	1.730	1.720	1.710	1.700	1.690	1.500
Nigeria	2.300	2.300	2.300	2.200	2.350	2.306
Qatar	0.830	0.830	0.830	0.820	0.820	0.726
Saudi Arabia	9.070	9.100	9.280	9.250	9.250	9.099
UAE	2.600	2.600	2.600	2.600	2.570	2.444
Venezuela	2.540	2.550	2.490	2.400	2.550	3.223
Total	29.750	29.950	29.910	29.690	9.950	N/A
OPEC-10	27.730	27.810	27.910	27.630	27.830	28.000
* These notional quotas were set in June 2005.