Posted on 12/10/2008 8:16:44 AM PST by thackney
The 13 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) pumped an average 31.38 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil in November, according to a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials just released. This is a decline of 880,000 from the October level of 32.26 million b/d.
Excluding Indonesia, which will leave OPEC at the end of this year, and Iraq, production from the 11 members bound by output agreements fell by 950,000 b/d to 28.16 million b/d from 29.11 million b/d, the survey showed.
This leaves the OPEC-11 with an additional 852,000 b/d of supply to remove if they are to reduce output to the level of the 27.308 million b/d output limit which came into effect at the beginning of November after the group agreed to slash production by 1.5 million b/d at emergency talks in Vienna on October 24.
"These cuts are nowhere near what analysts estimate is needed for OPEC to slash simply to catch up with rapidly receding demand," said Platts Global Director of Oil John Kingston. "Even if the full 1.5 million b/d cut was implemented, few now think even that would be enough to stave off tremendous increases in inventories, which will push prices down further. OPEC will have its work cut out for it at its upcoming meeting, with two main agenda items: how do we get to the cuts we agreed upon in October, and how much further do we cut from there?"
OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia accounted for the biggest single reduction, cutting its output to 8.9 million b/d from 9.4 million b/d in October. This leaves the kingdom still pumping more than 400,000 b/d in excess of its new 8.477 million b/d quota.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Saudi Arabia pumps 9,400,000 barrels of oil. Per day, every day. Damn, that’s still a lot of oil.
The OPEC members are hooked on the horns of a dilema, thay have to keep pumping, ie cheat, because of the huge debt service they ran up at $100 a barrel. Must have thought T Boone was correct, bad move.
down to 8.9 MMBPD, but your comment is still correct.
OPEC production
OPEC monitors its own crude production using so-called secondary sources, including the media. Platts publishes monthly estimates of OPEC production, based on a survey of OPEC and oil industry officials, on a country-by-country basis.
OPEC sets a production target for twelve of its 13 members. Iraq, which is struggling to rebuild its oil industry after years of UN sanctions and a war led by the US, does not have a production quota.
Monthly Production chart by member from July
http://www.platts.com/Oil/Resources/News%20Features/opec/prod%5ftable.xml
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