Platts Survey: OPEC Oil Output Rises Slightly in April After Months of Declines

Platts Survey: OPEC Oil Output Rises Slightly in April After Months of Declines

May 11, 2007

    LONDON, May 11 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- The 10 members of
the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
bound by the group's output agreements produced an average
26.57 million barrels of crude oil per day in April, a
Platts survey showed May 10.  This is up 30,000 barrels per
day (b/d) from March's 26.54 million b/d and 770,000 b/d
above their 25.8 million b/d production target established
last month.

    "But these numbers have to be viewed as worrisome
for consumers," said John Kingston, Platts global
director of oil. "Although the International Energy
Agency (IEA) projects that OPEC only needs to supply the
market with 29.3 million b/d in the second quarter to keep
inventories balanced, from a full-year perspective it must
supply about 30.4 million b/d," he explained, with the
heaviest supply needs coming in the third and fourth
quarters respectively, of 30.5 million b/d and more than 31
million p/d. 

    "So OPEC has to add a significant amount of supply
in the market, just to keep inventories from declining
further later this year," Kingston said. "And
those estimates don't include any extra surge of OPEC oil
that would be needed should the US Gulf of Mexico get hit
by a significant hurricane in the coming months."

    Total production from all 12 members, including Iraq
which does not participate in OPEC output pacts and Angola
which joined the group at the beginning of this year, rose
by 80,000 b/d to 30.19 million b/d, the survey estimated. 

    Small drops in output from Indonesia and Venezuela
totaling 20,000 b/d were more than offset by increases
totaling 100,000 b/d from Nigeria, Iraq and Angola, the
survey showed.

    OPEC ministers agreed last October to remove 1.2
million b/d of crude from world oil markets from November
2006, saying supply was well in excess of demand and
setting a production target of 26.3 million b/d. In
December, they agreed to expand the cut by 500,000 b/d from
February. The cuts were based on estimated September
production of 27.5 million b/d.

    Although OPEC compliance with its 1.7 million b/d total
cut has fallen well short of 100%, world crude benchmarks
have been holding above $60/barrel. The latest Platts
survey shows that the OPEC-10 have cut supply by some 1.24
million b/d since September, when Platts estimates pegged
production at 27.81 million b/d.


    Country       April     March     Feb       Jan      
Dec       Cut 
    Algeria       1.330     1.330     1.330     1.340    
1.350     0.084 
    Indonesia     0.840     0.850     0.840     0.860    
0.860     0.055 
    Iran          3.800     3.800     3.800     3.850    
3.850     0.249 
    Kuwait        2.410     2.410     2.410     2.460    
2.460     0.142 
    Libya         1.680     1.680     1.680     1.690    
1.700     0.102 
    Nigeria       2.200     2.150     2.250     2.250    
2.230     0.142 
    Qatar         0.790     0.790     0.790     0.800    
0.800     0.050 
    Saudi Arabia  8.600     8.600     8.600     8.750    
8.790     0.538 
    UAE           2.500     2.500     2.490     2.500    
2.500     0.143 
    Venezuela     2.420     2.430     2.430     2.450    
2.460     0.195 
    OPEC-10       26.570    26.540    26.620    26.950   
27.000    1.700 
    Angola*       1.580     1.570     1.550     1.500    
N/A       N/A    
    Iraq          2.040     2.000     2.010     1.660    
1.900        
    Total         30.190    30.110    30.180    30.110   
28.900      
 
    *  Angola joined OPEC on January 1, 2007.


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