OPEC-10 Oil Output Down 205,000 bpd in Feb
OPEC-10 Oil Output Down 205,000 bpd in Feb; Jan Revised Down NEW YORK - The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cut its crude oil output further in February following a curb of production in January, the U.S. Department of Energy said Tuesday.
by Anna Raff
Mar 7, 2007
The 10 OPEC members subject to production quotas, not including Iraq and recent member Angola, produced 26.455 million barrels a day, down 205,000 barrels a day from January levels, according to a report by the Energy Information Administration. The EIA is the statistics arm of the Energy Department.
In addition, the EIA revised downward its estimate of OPEC-10 January output. According to the new estimate, oil production fell 220,000 between December and January to 26.66 million barrels a day.
'The OPEC-10 made about half of the targeted 1.2 million barrels per day production cut by January 2007,' the EIA said its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook. 'OPEC-10 production could increase by 1 million bbl/d by the fourth quarter of 2007 when compared with first-quarter levels.'
February's output was 575,000 above the 10 members' combined production target of 25.88 million barrels a day for the month.
In a bid to buoy sliding oil prices, OPEC agreed to cut output from these ten members by 1.7 million barrels a day in two tranches starting Nov. 1. The second phase took effect Feb. 1.
According to a Dow Jones Newswires survey, the 10 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that have output quotas cut production in February by 1.6% on month to 26.45 million barrels a day. This is in line with the EIA's estimate.
OPEC is scheduled to meet March 15 in Vienna, and several countries have already said that another production cut is unlikely because oil prices have stabilized around $60 a barrel, a level believed to be acceptable to most OPEC countries.
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© 2007 Dow Jones Newswires.