OPEC’s oil supplies hit 31.68m bpd in September

KUWAIT: OPEC’s daily oil supplies went up from 31.57 million barrels per day in last August to 31.68 million b/d in following month, said the Diplomatic Center for Strategic Studies in its economic report on Sunday. The global oil cartel enhanced its output by 1.5 million b/d since last November to ensure that the market is well supplied, the report, noted.

This reflects a turn in OPEC’s policy which used to cut down its output in order to boost prices, thus bringing down the prices by almost a half to $48 pb over the last year. However, the continued decline of the output of the US oil rigs could help boost the prices even slightly, the report said, citing recent reports that the number of operating oil rigs in the US went down from 1,609 in October, 2014, to just 614 in last month.

Russia, the world’s largest oil producer, has stated desire to discuss the oil prices with OPEC, which could contribute to the upward slant of the prices in the short run. In November, 2014, Russia refused to cooperate with OPEC and cut its output quota in order to boost the prices. In September, 2015, Russia’s daily output has hit 10.74 million barrels - a record high since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, despite the fact that the prices hit a low record in six and a half years.

Though the number of operating US oil rigs declined, the country’s production grew from 9.3 million bpd in June, 2015, to 9.4 million bpd in the following month, according to figures for the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Nevertheless, this level of US oil output is less than the 9.6 million bpd, registered in April, 2015 - an all-time record high since early 1970s. As the US output continues to increase, the OPEC member states are vying for larger shares from the East Asian markets.

Saudi Arabia reduced the prices of its oil exports after similar steps announced in last September by other OPEC members from the Gulf region, according to the report. Iran and Iraq and other Middle East countries cut down their official oil prices by margins larger that Saudi Arabia’s, it added.