A drop in oil produced in Libya and Iraq saw the amount of crude output from OPEC countries drop last month – despite Saudi Arabia increasing its own output, a new report has found.
Ongoing tensions in the countries saw the amount of oil being produced fall from 30.57million barrels a day in May to 30.45million in June.
The news came just a day after OMV admitted that it had not been able to produce oil from Libya since mid-June due to unrest in the north African country.
Platts found production in the country, which had recovered to around 1.4million barrels a day in May, dropped by 200,000 as tensions spread to key oil fields. Iraq saw its output drop by as much as 100,000 barrels a day as the northern pipline was suspended following insurgency.
“What’s notable about this month’s figures is not the Libyan decline, because that was known since the start of June, but the way the Saudis stepped right in to fill that gap,” said John Kingston, Platts global director of news.
“The Saudi role as swing producer becomes more significant every month, as the kingdom puts oil into the market when it’s needed, and takes it out when it’s not.
“It has been particularly aggressive in this role in recent months.”
Saudi’s output increased by 250,000 barrels per day to 9.65million, the highest volume since November last year, as production increased to meet demand from power stations.
Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates each saw smaller increases, by around 10,000 barrels a day each, but dips from Algeria, Angola and Nigeria as sabotage took its toll brought the total down.
However, the Platts report found OPEC is continuing to overproduce ahead of its 30million barrels a day ceiling, by more than 450,000 barrels a day.
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