Submitted by Julianne Geiger of OilPrice.com
OPEC’s production increased in August thanks to Iraq and Nigeria a Reuters survey found on Friday.
OPEC’s August production has been estimated at 29.61 million barrels per day, which is 80,000 barrels per day over July’s production level.
The production increase is surprising, given that Iran and Venezuela are producing less not by choice, and continue to face uphill battles when it comes to maintaining their oil production. Saudi Arabia, too, over complied with the production cut deal again as expected, but it raised production for August slightly over July. Overall, the group is still over complying with the production quotas.
OPEC’s compliance for August is now estimated at 136%, no thanks to Iraq and Nigeria, who lifted production by 80,000 barrels per day and 60,000 barrels per day, respectively. And even though Saudi Arabia is still over complying, it lifted production in August to produce 9.63 million barrels per day.
While Iraq, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia increased production in August, Iran’s production fell further—experiencing a 50,000 barrels per day loss for the month. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week said it had successfully removed 2.7 million barrels of oil per day off the oil market since it first sanctioned the country.
Iran’s July oil and condensates exports for July fell to 120,000 barrels per day, Reuters said last week. Iran’s production for July was 2.21 million bpd. This compares to an average daily production rate of 3.55 million barrels for all of 2018.
Oil prices fell sharply on Friday, and news that OPEC’s production increased this month may press further down on prices.
And extended losses in late Sunday, early Monday trading.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2zGfktU Tyler Durden