The world’s listed oil companies have slashed oil production by 2.4% so far this year, according to financial services giant Morgan Stanley.
Its figures also show the total output of 109 listed companies producing more than one-third of the world’s oil fell in the third quarter of 2016 by 838,000 barrels per day (bpd), compared with a year earlier, to 33.88million bpd.
By comparison, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) produced 33.64million bpd in October alone.
Opec has struggled to agree on a joint production freeze or cut to support oil prices before its meeting in Vienna next week.
It is thought the cartel may ask non-Opec producers to make big cuts in output, highlighting the challenges in striking a deal to stabilise prices.
According to Morgan Stanley, listed companies including majors such as BP and Shell reduced their overall production by nearly 930,000 bpd in the second quarter of 2016.
Martijn Rats, an equity analyst at the firm, said: “We have seen a large swing in the year-on-year trend in production from strong growth as recent as a year ago … to steep decline.
“This is the outcome of the strong cutbacks in investment.”
Capital expenditure for the 109 companies combined more than halved to £46.5billion in the third quarter of this year, from £109billion in the same three months of 2014, Mr Rats added.
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