OPEC Shipments to Fall 0.7 Percent in Four Weeks to Sept. 10

OPEC Shipments to Fall 0.7 Percent in Four Weeks to Sept. 10

Saijel Kishan, Bloomberg/London

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is set to ship 0.7 percent less oil in the four weeks ending Sept. 10 than in the previous four weeks, the consulting company Oil Movements said, after crude prices reached a record US$68 a barrel this week.

OPEC is scheduled to load 24.3 million barrels per day (bpd) onto tankers in the period, down 190,000 barrels a day from the four weeks ended Aug. 13, Halifax, England-based Oil Movements said in a report on Friday. Shipments are up 3 percent from a year ago.

"Decline in September sailings is a normal event -- August and September are low points in the seasonal calendar," Roy Mason, the founder of Oil Movements, wrote in the report. "If anything, the downturn scheduled for next month is happening a little later than usual."

OPEC supplies about 40 percent of the world's oil. Oil prices reached $68 a barrel on Thursday in New York, the highest intraday price since trading began in 1983, on concern that storms in the Gulf of Mexico will disrupt supplies in the region.

OPEC's 11 members are Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Nigeria, Libya, Indonesia, Algeria and Qatar. More than half the group's production is shipped from the Persian Gulf.

Global oil shipments, including non-OPEC exports, are set to average 36.9 million bpd in the four weeks ending Sept. 10, down 0.6 percent from the preceding four weeks, Oil Movements said. Non-OPEC producers, such as Russia, made up 34 percent of the exports.

Shipments from the Middle East are expected to average 17.3 million bpd in the period, down from 17.7 million bpd, the consultant said.

Eastbound exports from the Middle East, which make up 69 percent of the region's total, will average 11.9 million bpd in the four weeks, down from 12.3 million bpd.

Westbound exports are set to average 5.34 million bpd in the period, down 0.4 percent, Oil Movements said.

Oil carried on tankers will average 457 million barrels in the period worldwide, down from 469 million barrels, the consultant said. OPEC members account for 90 percent of the total.

The group on July 1 raised its official output ceiling by 500,000 bpd to 28 million bpd, to help stem an increase in oil prices.