OPEC Shipments Will Increase 0.6% in Four Weeks Ending Sept. 24
OPEC Shipments Will Increase 0.6% in Four Weeks Ending Sept. 24
Saijel Kishan, Bloomberg, London
OPEC is set to ship 0.6 percent more oil in the four weeks
ending Sept. 24 than in the previous four weeks, the consulting
company Oil Movements said. The group may agree to raise output
quotas when it meets in Vienna next week.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is
scheduled to load 24.5 million barrels a day onto tankers in the
period, up 140,000 barrels a day from the four weeks ended Aug.
27, Halifax, England-based Oil Movements said in a report today.
Shipments are up 3 percent from a year ago.
"Production looks set to edge up this month, after staying
flat, at best, in August," Roy Mason, the founder of Oil
Movements, said in the report. The number of reported tanker
bookings for single-voyages has increased, he said.
OPEC supplies about 40 percent of the world's oil. The group
"is likely to agree on raising the output" to help lower prices
after Hurricane Katrina disrupted supplies in the U.S., said
Javad Yarjani, Iran's National Representative to the group,
according to Petroenergy Information Network, the Iranian Oil
Ministry news service.
Oil prices reached $70.85 a barrel in New York on Aug. 30, as
Katrina reduced oil production in the U.S.
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 37 million barrels a day in the four weeks ending Sept.
24, up 100,000 barrels a day from the preceding four weeks, Oil
Movements said. Non-OPEC producers, such as Russia, made up 24
percent of the exports.
Shipments from the Middle East are expected to average 17.5
million barrels a day in the period, down 0.05 percent, the
consultant said.
Eastbound exports from the Middle East, which make up 69
percent of the region's total, will average 12.06 million barrels
a day in the four weeks, compared with 12.04 million barrels a
day.
Westbound exports are set to fall 0.5 percent to 5.4 million
barrels a day, Oil Movements said.
Oil carried on tankers worldwide will average 466 million
barrels in the four weeks to Sept. 24, compared with 495 million
barrels in the previous four weeks, the consultant said. OPEC
members account for 86 percent of the total.