Platts Survey: OPEC Crude Oil Output Rises 300,000 b/d to 32.77 Million Barrels Per Day In July

London (ots/PRNewswire) -

Platts -- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries'
(OPEC) 13 members boosted their collective crude oil production by
300,000 barrels per day (b/d) in July to average 32.77 million b/d
over the month, according to a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry
officials just released.

Excluding Iraq, the 12 members bound by output agreements
produced an average 30.31 million b/d in July, or 330,000 b/d more
than June's 29.98 million b/d and 637,000 b/d in excess of their
29.673 million b/d target, the survey showed.

"It's notable that suddenly, with output rising, OPEC officials
are concerned about adherence to quotas and oversupply," said Platts
Global Director of Oil John Kingston. "However, as we look toward the
fourth quarter of the year, barring a more significant decline in
demand, the world is going to need OPEC oil to avoid a larger
inventory draw than is normal for the fourth quarter. Pulling
inventories at that rate would be very bullish for prices."

Increases totaling 390,000 b/d from Iran, Kuwait, Nigeria and
Saudi Arabia were partly offset by declines in Libya and Iraq.

The biggest single increase came from Saudi Arabia, which
delivered on its promise to boost output to 9.7 million b/d in July
from 9.45 million b/d in June.

Nigerian production also got a boost, its volumes increasing by
100,000 b/d in July to average 1.9 million b/d over the month.
Indeed, Nigerian oil production was showing signs of improvement over
the first few days of August with an average of more than 2.1 million
b/d.

But industry sources and officials from the state-owned Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation said last week that the volume of
crude still shut in because of militant attacks and technical issues
at fields in the southern oil patch stood at 1.533 million b/d.

Libyan volumes, already down in May and June because of repair
work at Total's al-Jurf field, fell further in July as maintenance
work got underway on a pipeline linking the Waha and Defa oil fields.

Libya's top oil official, Shokri Ghanem, who heads the National
Oil Corporation, told Platts last week that the work on the pipeline
and the field would continue for some weeks.

Iraqi volumes fell by 30,000 b/d to 2.46 million b/d.

OPEC ministers meet September 9 in Vienna. International crude
futures prices have fallen by some 20% from records above
US$147/barrel in early July and some ministers have talked of
possible intervention if prices continue on their sharp downtrend.

Iranian oil minister Gholamhossein Nozari said earlier this month
that if prices continued to fall, the Vienna meeting would focus on
closer adherence to production targets, while his Qatari counterpart,
Abdullah al-Attiyah, said OPEC was ready to intervene to restore
market balance if it felt supply was outstripping demand.

Visit http://www.platts.com/Oil/Resources/News%20Features/opec/p
rod_table.xml for a table of production numbers by country. For more
information on OPEC, go to the "Platts Guide to OPEC" at
http://www.opec.platts.com.

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