Most OPEC producers pumping over quota: MEES report
Most OPEC producers pumping over quota: MEES report
Agencies, Dubai/Tehran
Most members of the OPEC oil cartel are producing over quota, the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) reports, noting that overall January output was more than one million barrels per day above target.
Production by the 10 countries, excluding Iraq, dropped for the sixth consecutive month, falling by 960,000 bpd to 22.81 million bpd last month, according to Monday's edition of the industry newsletter.
However, that represented an excess of 1.1 million bpd over the new ceiling agreed in Cairo on Dec. 28 in a bid to shore up flagging world prices.
"Most countries exceeded their assigned quotas," MEES says.
"It is understood that much of the January loading program was only modestly impacted by the new cuts because of the end- December quota decision, but that this issue will be addressed more forthrightly in February," the weekly notes.
MEES sources said Iranian production in January rose to 3.43 million bpd from 3.4 million bpd in December.
"Preliminary information indicates that Mexican and Norwegian compliance with their pledges has been good, while the jury is still out on Russia," the Cyprus-based survey says.
Major independent producers including Russia, Norway and Mexico agreed to join the cartel's cuts after a 30-percent slide in oil prices owing to a global economic slowdown caused by the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Secretary General Ali Rodriguez and Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil are due in Moscow next month to urge Russia not to boost oil production, amid analysts' expectations that it will pump more crude from March.
MEES also reports that Iraq's January production increased to 2.31 million bpd in January -- 1.55 million bpd under the UN's oil-for-food prgramme and 760,000 bpd for domestic refineries and cross-border trade -- compared to two million bpd in December.
Meanwhile, Iran said on Saturday it was not satisfied with the current OPEC basket price for crude oil which is below the lower limit of the cartel's official $22-28 range, and urged producers to cooperate to shore up prices.
"Our last decision is still valid...$22 is our last decision and it is valid in our point of view," Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh told Reuters on the sidelines of a regional energy conference in Tehran.
OPEC's basket rose on Thursday to $19.41 per barrel from $19.25 per barrel a day earlier, but remained below the $22 lower end of the cartel's official price target range.
Zanganeh also said he believed that OPEC's oil output would not be altered before a ministerial meeting in Vienna scheduled on March 15.