OPEC, allies struggle to pump more oil as Iran supply falls

OPEC and its allies reduced oil output in August as a drop in Iranian supply due to U.S. sanctions derailed their attempts to raise production to agreed levels, delegates said on Saturday as the energy producers prepared to hold talks in Algiers.

The development further raises pressure on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to boost supply amid calls from U.S. President Donald Trump to lower oil prices.

On Friday, a source familiar with the discussions told Reuters OPEC and its allies led by Russia were considering the possibility of raising crude supplies by a further 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) as U.S. sanctions on OPEC’s third-largest producer, Iran, bite into Tehran’s exports.

“If an increase in production is proposed there will be plenty of market counterargument that it reduces even further the available spare capacity,” Olivier Jakob from consultancy Petromatrix said.

“Saudi Arabia has made the mistake of trying to compensate for the loss of Iranian supplies with just-in-time replacement; but the oil market is looking for greater supply security than that. As a result, the strength of oil prices is now putting oil demand growth at risk,” he added.

An OPEC and non-OPEC monitoring committee gathering in the Algerian capital this weekend found that oil producers’ compliance with a supply-reduction agreement reached 129 percent in August, two committee delegates said.

This compares with a compliance level of 109 percent for July, indicating that the group over-achieved on its agreed cut.

Seeking to reverse a downturn in oil prices that began in 2014, OPEC, Russia and other allies decided in late 2016 to reduce supply by some 1.8 million bpd.