Opec output falls to lowest in a year

Crude production by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries ( Opec) dropped to the lowest in a year amid the woes in Venezuela’s oil industry. Output from the 14 Opec members fell by 170,000 barrels to 32.04 million barrels a day in March, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts, oil companies and ship- tracking data. That’s the lowest since last April’s 31.9 million barrels a day. Back then, Equatorial Guinea — which pumped 130,000 barrels a day last month — wasn’t part of Opec.

Production in Venezuela declined by 100,000 barrels a day from February to 1.51 million barrels a day, the survey showed. Algerian output dropped 40,000 barrels a day to 1 million. Libya saw production drop below the 1 million barrels a day after some fields were shut down. Output from Saudi Arabia, Opec’s de facto leader and its biggest producer, fell 10,000 barrels a day from February to 9.87 million.