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.