LONDON, July 6, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Oil production from
the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
totaled 31.28 million barrels per day (b/d) in June, up 170,000 b/d
from May and the fourth consecutive monthly increase since
February, as Saudi Arabia and
Iraq pushed out more oil, a Platts
survey of OPEC and oil industry officials and analysts showed
Monday.
"This is the highest monthly level since August 2012, when the survey estimated output at
31.54 million b/d," said Margaret McQuaile, senior
correspondent for Platts, a leading global provider of energy and
commodities information. "At that point, output was on the way
down. Now, output seems to be on the way up, and at a time when the
market could be looking at a lot more oil from Iran."
The June total leaves OPEC pumping nearly 1.3 million b/d in
excess of its official 30 million b/d ceiling.
Top producer, Saudi Arabia,
driver of the oil producer group's current market share strategy,
further increased its output to produce an average 10.35 million
b/d in June. A spike in air-conditioning demand has traditionally
boosted the volume of crude burned directly in the kingdom's power
plants during the summer months. In addition, new refineries are
pushing domestic use of crude oil higher.
Iraq pushed volumes from its
Gulf terminals up by nearly 330,000 b/d to more than 3 million b/d
following the commissioning at the beginning of the month of a new
storage and pumping system at the onshore Fao terminal. As well as
Basrah Light, Iraq is now
exporting the newly-introduced Basrah Heavy crude oil.
But volumes exported from Turkish Mediterranean port
Ceyhan via the pipeline system of
semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan fell by more than half from May
levels, raising a question mark over the future of an oil export
agreement signed by Baghdad and
Erbil late last year.
Last Thursday, the Kurdistan Regional Government said it had
been forced to boost the sale of its own crude to international
markets last month because of a "debt backlog" triggered by federal
government budget cuts, leaving less crude available for export
from Ceyhan on behalf of Iraqi
state oil marketer SOMO.
In Libya, output slipped by
20,000 b/d to 410,000 b/d as it continued to struggle to raise
production due to ongoing security issues and technical
limitations.
However, state-owned national oil company is optimistic it can
raise output in the near term following the lifting of force
majeure at the major Ras Lanuf export facility and a tentative
agreement with tribal leaders in western Libya to reopen the pipeline linking the major
fields of Sharara and Elephant (El Feel) to ports on the country's
western Mediterranean coast.
OPEC said after its June 5
agreement that members had been urged to adhere to the 30 million
b/d ceiling. There is, however, no mechanism in place to enforce
any level of adherence as no individual country quotas have been
distributed under the ceiling.
For output numbers by country, click here. You may be prompted
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latest OPEC news features, visit this OPEC Features
link and for an OPEC guide, access this link:
http://www.platts.com/news-feature/2015/oil/opec-guide/index.
Additional information on oil, energy and related
information may be found on the Platts website
at www.platts.com.
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SOURCE Platts