Platts Survey: OPEC Oil Output Rises to 28.89 Million Barrels per day in October

October OPEC-11 Oil Output Rises 70,000 Barrels per day to 26.4 Million
Barrels per Day

LONDON, Nov. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Platts - The Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) crude oil production averaged 28.89 million barrels
per day (b/d) in October, up 60,000 b/d from September's 28.83 million b/d, a
Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry sources and analysts showed November
12.

"OPEC appears to have tied its output policy more or less directly to
developments in the world economy. While actual output has been increasing
steadily, the group seems reluctant to legitimize its overproduction by
raising official quotas given that consumer stocks are at historically high
levels and its own less than optimistic view of fundamentals," said John
Kingston, Platts global director of oil.

"At the same time, possibly for fear of putting pressure on the nascent
economic recovery, OPEC has refrained from encouraging members to improve
their levels of discipline by reining in overproduction towards the target
level. Any dramatic movement in the oil price could force its hand, but for
the time being OPEC seems able and happy enough to ignore the big gap between
nominal and actual output," added Kingston.

Excluding Iraq, which does not participate in OPEC output agreements,
production from the 11 members bound by quotas (OPEC-11) rose by 70,000 b/d to
26.4 million b/d in October from 26.33 million b/d in September.

Increases totalling 90,000 b/d from Angola, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates (UAE) were partly offset by decreases from Iran, Libya
and Iraq of 30,000 b/d.

The latest estimates leave the OPEC-11 overproducing their 24.845 million b/d
output target by nearly 1.56 million b/d.

Compliance with the 4.2 million b/d of cuts agreed late last year has been
declining since April alongside a broad firming of oil prices. Having peaked
at close to 82% in March, compliance fell to just under 63% in October.

In September, OPEC rolled over its official output target for the third time
this year, saying that although the outlook for fundamentals was gloomy, it
did not want to take any action on production that might endanger global
economic recovery.

Latest soundings from OPEC officials suggest an ongoing reluctance to increase
official targets despite the continuing rise in actual output. UAE oil
minister Mohammed bin Dhaen al-Hamli was quoted last weekend as saying that
raising official targets was not on OPEC's agenda for the December 22 meeting
in Luanda, Angola.

For production numbers by country, view this table.

For other oil, energy and related information, visit Platts online at
www.platts.com.

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SOURCE Platts

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