Platts Survey: OPEC-10 Oil Output Up 70,000 b/d in May to 26.64 mb/d

Platts Survey: OPEC-10 Oil Output Up 70,000 b/d in May to 26.64 mb/d

June 11, 2007

    LONDON, June 11 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- 

    The 10 members of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) bound by the group's output
agreements produced an average 26.64 million barrels per
day (b/d) in May, a Platts survey showed June 8. This is an
increase of 70,000 b/d from April's 26.57 million b/d and is
above the group's production targets.

    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 100,000 b/d to 30.29 million b/d from April's 30.19
million b/d, the survey showed.

    Increases from Algeria, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi
Arabia, the UAE and Angola totaling 190,000 b/d were partly
offset by 90,000 b/d in decreases from Nigeria, where some
shut-in production was restored as other outages occurred,
and Iraq.

    "The good news for consumers is that higher prices
do appear to be spurring concurrent increases in production.
But the bad news remains the continuing situation in
Nigeria, where production is down again, largely due to
continued rebel activity in the Niger Delta," said
John Kingston, Platts global director of oil.  "The
loss of several hundred thousand barrels a day of
production from that key country is going to provide
support to prices for the foreseeable future."

    The May average of 26.64 million b/d for the OPEC-10
leaves them overproducing their 25.8 million b/d target by
some 840,000 b/d.

    OPEC agreed late last year to remove a total 1.7
million b/d from actual oil supply. At a meeting in Vienna
in March, it decided to maintain the 25.8 million b/d
target output level for the OPEC-10 and not to meet again
until September 11.

    The West's energy watchdog, the International Energy
Agency, has urged OPEC to boost supply so as to allow
depleted consumer oil stocks to build. But OPEC officials
have insisted that there is no shortage of crude and that
oil prices have risen because of a host of other factors,
including concerns about the adequacy of summer gasoline
supplies in the US, the ongoing situation in the Niger
Delta which has resulted in large volumes of crude
production being shut in, and geopolitics.

    On Tuesday, OPEC Secretary General Abdalla el-Badri
said OPEC would only raise official limits if it saw
changes in fundamentals, including a "constant"
draw in consumer oil inventories and oil prices at high
levels for a sustained period.
    


    Country          May    April   March   February   
January        Cut

    Algeria        1.350    1.330   1.330      1.330     
1.340      0.084
    Indonesia      0.840    0.840   0.850      0.840     
0.860      0.055
    Iran           3.850    3.800   3.800      3.800     
3.850      0.249
    Kuwait         2.420    2.410   2.410      2.410     
2.460      0.142
    Libya          1.680    1.680   1.680      1.680     
1.690      0.102
    Nigeria        2.130    2.200   2.150      2.250     
2.250      0.142
    Qatar          0.800    0.790   0.790      0.790     
0.800      0.050
    Saudi Arabia   8.610    8.600   8.600      8.600     
8.750      0.538
    UAE            2.540    2.500   2.500      2.490     
2.500      0.143
    Venezuela      2.420    2.420   2.430      2.430     
2.450      0.195
    OPEC-10       26.640   26.570  26.540     26.620    
26.950      1.700
    Angola*        1.630    1.580   1.570      1.550     
1.500        N/A   
    Iraq           2.020    2.040   2.000      2.010     
1.660           
    Total         30.290   30.190  30.110     30.180    
30.110

    *  Platts estimates
    ** Angola joined OPEC on January 1, 2007.



    For more information on OPEC, go to the "Platts
Guide to OPEC" at http://www.opec.platts.com .

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