London: Oil production by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) fell in October as cuts in Saudi Arabia and problems in Iraq more than offset the recovery in Libya's following the fall of the Muammar Gaddafi regime.
Total production from the group of 12 countries was 30.195 million barrels a day in October, compared with 30.275 million barrels a day in September, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey of industry sources and analysts.
Oil production in Libya rose to an average of 370,000 barrels a day in October as oil fields continued to restart following the cessation of hostilities. Output had climbed to almost 500,000 barrels a day by the end of the month as some of the country's largest fields began to resume operations, according to Nouri Berruien, chairman of Libya's National Oil Co.
However, decreases elsewhere offset this progress.
Attacks
In Iraq, output was curtailed by attacks on pipelines connected to the country's largest field, Rumaila, and six days of bad weather at the country's export terminals. Iraq's production fell to 2.65 million barrels a day, from 2.78 million barrels a day in September.
Saudi Arabia, which increased production earlier in the year to make up for the loss of Libyan supplies, continued to cut gradually. Saudi Arabia produced 9.45 million barrels a day in October, 400,000 barrels a day below its peak of 9.85 million in August. The estimate for Saudi production in September was revised to 9.55 million barrels a day, from an initial estimate of 9.8 million barrels a day, following additional information from official sources.
Dow Jones Newswires assesses Opec output from data supplied by primary sources, traders and analysts.
Totals may not add due to independent rounding of numbers.
Opec at its December 17, 2008 meeting in Oran agreed on reducing output by a total of 2.2 million barrels a day from January 1, 2009 for the 11 members with a quota, bringing to 4.2 million barrels a day the combined cuts announced since September 2008.
