OPEC, allies struggle to fully deliver pledged output boost

Iraq min reverses oil co ownership transfer

LONDON, Oct 20, (RTRS): OPEC is struggling to add barrels to the market after agreeing in June to increase output, an internal document seen by Reuters showed, as an increase in Saudi Arabia was offset by declines in Iran, Venezuela and Angola.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies agreed in June to boost supply as US President Donald Trump urged producers to offset losses caused by sanctions on Iran and to dampen rising prices.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said OPEC and non-OPEC would pump roughly an extra 1 million barrels per day (bpd) following the June agreement. The OPEC document seen by Reuters adds to signs they have yet to deliver the full amount.

OPEC says it is on course to do so, although it hasn’t given a time frame. “It is a work in progress,” OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said earlier this week.

The internal document prepared by OPEC’s Vienna headquarters for a technical panel meeting on Friday showed that OPEC members, excluding Nigeria, Libya and Congo pumped an extra 428,000 bpd in September compared to May.

The OPEC and non-OPEC technical panel called the Joint Technical Committee reviews producers’ compliance with their oil supply pledges.

Top exporter Saudi Arabia pumped most of the extra oil, raising output by 524,000 bpd in September compared to May, the document showed. Other increases came from Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Iran, facing US sanctions on its oil exports from Nov 4, cut production by 376,000 bpd in September versus May, and has said OPEC and Saudi Arabia are not able to make up for a total loss of its exports.

“There is no spare capacity,” Iran’s OPEC governor, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, said last month.

Among other OPEC members, production fell by 189,000 bpd in Venezuela and by 17,000 bpd in Angola.

The non-OPEC nations cooperating with OPEC pumped an extra 296,000 bpd since May, the OPEC document showed. Russia increased output by 389,000 bpd, although Kazakhstan, Mexico and Malaysia posted declines.

Nigeria, Libya and Congo are not included in OPEC’s supply-limiting

pact. Including them brings the increase in OPEC’s output in September to 628,000 bpd.

Oil prices fell last week after three days of gains as markets awaited key US inventory data expected to show a build in US crude stockpiles.

Brent crude was down 65 cents at $80.76 a barrel by 1325 GMT, after gaining $1.15 over the previous three sessions. The benchmark, which hit a two-week low last week as equity markets dropped, is trading around $5 below a four-year high of $86.74 reached on Oct 3. US light crude oil was 80 cents lower at $71.12.

Official oil inventory data from the US Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration was due to be published at 1430 GMT on Wednesday.

A Reuters survey of eight analysts estimated crude stocks rose by about 2.2 million barrels last week.

On Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute reported that US crude inventories fell by 2.1 million barrels in the week to Oct 12 to 408.5 million, surprising the market.

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SULAIMANIYA, Iraq: Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi has reversed his decision to transfer the ownership of nine state-owned oil companies from the ministry to the newly formed National Oil Company, the ministry said on Saturday.

The move would enable the incoming government of Prime Ministerdesignate Adel Abdul Mahdi to make its own decisions in the oil sector, the ministry said in a statement. Luaibi is the oil minister in an outgoing government led by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.