Business | Oil & Gas
Opec's production capacity to rise 4.68% by 2009
The combined production capacity of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the group that supplies more than a third of the world's oil, is estimated to rise 4.68 per cent by the end of 2008 to 35.8 million barrels a day from the current 34.2 million bpd, says the latest oil market report of the International Energy Agency (IEA).
- By Himendra Mohan Kumar, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:05 September 17, 2007
Abu Dhabi: The combined production capacity of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the group that supplies more than a third of the world's oil, is estimated to rise 4.68 per cent by the end of 2008 to 35.8 million barrels a day from the current 34.2 million bpd, says the latest oil market report of the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The Paris-based agency, which advises 26 member countries on energy policy, has said Angola, Saudi Arabia and Qatar underpin this year's capacity growth, with Saudi Arabia, Angola, Kuwait and the UAE responsible for the bulk of 2008's increase.
The Opec's production capacity is expected to rise to 34.5 million bpd by the end of this year, according to the agency's estimates.
"If Opec production tracks the expected 'call on Opec crude and stock change' through the fourth quarter of 2007, spare capacity is likely to temporarily decline from effective levels around 2.7 million bpd now," the agency noted.
The August Opec crude supply averaged 30.4 million bpd, some 80,000 b/d lower than in July. Last week, Opec ministers concluded their meeting with an agreement that the Opec-10 (excluding Angola and Iraq) would raise supplies to the market by 500,000 bpd, effective November 1. No individual production allocations were mentioned, but comments from Opec officials after the release of the official communique suggested that increases will be on top of current production.
Tight US product markets, a shift of market structure into backwardation and the need to ensure adequate winter supplies were cited as justifying the increase.
The communique said that Opec will continue to monitor the supply/demand situation over coming months and affirmed that an extraordinary meeting will be held to reassess the market situation next December 5 in Abu Dhabi.
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