OPEC raises compliance with oil output deal to 145% in July

MOSCOW, Aug 16 (PRIME) -- The combined oil output of OPEC states fell by 246,000 barrels a day to 29.609 million barrels in July, but their compliance with the OPEC+ oil output reduction deal grew to 145% in the month from 129% in June, the organization said on Friday in a report citing data of secondary sources.

Saudi Arabia was once again the leading state in oil output reduction under the deal, cutting its production by 935,000 barrels a day instead of 322,000 barrels that the deal demands. Iraq did not comply with its liabilities under the deal at all, while Gabon, Nigeria, and Congo complied with the deal partially.

Saudi Arabia’s oil production fell 202,000 barrels on the month to 9.58 million barrels a day in July, while Iran’s production shrank 47,000 barrels to 2.213 million barrels, and Venezuela’s output fell 32,000 barrels to 742,000 barrels.

Commercial reserves of oil and oil products in countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) exceeded their 5-year average figures by 67 million barrels in July, amounting to 2.955 billion barrels, OPEC said.

The organization also reduced its forecast for growth of global demand for oil by 40,000 barrels a day to 1.1 million barrels in 2019, but it still expects it to grow by 1.14 million barrels in 2020. So, demand for oil should rise to 99.92 million barrels a day in 2019 and to 101.05 million barrels a day in 2020.

OPEC also reduced its forecast for an increase in daily oil supply from non-OPEC states in 2019 by 72,000 barrels to 1.97 million barrels and in 2020 by 50,000 barrels to 2.39 million barrels. Supply should amount to 64.39 million barrels a day in 2019 and to 66.78 million barrels a day in 2020.

The organization still sees Russia producing 11.39 million barrels of oil a day in 2019 and 11.49 million barrels a day in 2020, but OPEC reduced its forecast for growth of the U.S. oil output in 2019 by 60,000 barrels a day to 1.31 million barrels and in 2020 by 30,000 barrels a day to 1.24 million barrels. The organization sees the average oil production in the U.S. at 12.3 million barrels a day in 2019 and at 13.54 million barrels in 2020.

In November 2016, OPEC and non-OPEC states including Russia first agreed to reduce their oil output to rebalance the market. In December 2018, the states decided to cut production by an additional 800,000 barrels per day for OPEC and 400,000 barrels per day for non-OPEC states, including 228,000 barrels per day for Russia, from the level of October 2018. In July, they prolonged the deal until April 2020.

End