OPEC production reaches high

OPEC increased crude-oil production in November to the highest level in 11 months. It rose as members took advantage of rising prices, a Bloomberg News survey showed.

Output averaged 28.9 million barrels a day last month, which was up 110,000 barrels from October, according to the survey of oil companies, producers and analysts.

Iraq, the only OPEC member without an output quota, was the sole member to cut production. Countries with quotas pumped 26.5 million barrels a day, 1.655 million above their target.

Oil prices

OPEC cut output quotas by 4.2 million barrels to 24.845 million barrels a day last year as fuel demand fell during the worst global recession since World War II. The group, which left the targets unchanged at the 9 September meeting in Vienna, is set to gather again on 22 December in Luanda, Angola.

Oil prices have more than doubled from a four-year low of US$32.40 a barrel touched in December 2008, which caused OPEC to make production curbs. Futures increased US$1.31, or 1.7 percent, to US$78.59 yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Arabian Business said.

OPEC capacity

OPEC had 5.6 million barrels a day of spare capacity last month, down from 5.71 million in October, the survey showed. Saudi Arabia can increase daily output by 2.61 million barrels, the largest amount of any of the group's producers.

Saudi Arabian production climbed the most of any member last month, followed by gains in Nigeria, Angola, Iran and Kuwait. Saudi production rose 40,000 barrels a day to 8.19 million barrels a day in November, pushing output 139,000 barrels above the kingdom's quota.

Iran, OPEC's second-biggest producer, increased output 15,000 barrels a day to 3.795 million last month, the report showed. The country pumped an average 459,000 barrels a day in excess of its target.

Kuwaiti output rose 15,000 barrels a day to 2.215 million. The country produced 7,000 barrels a day less than its quota, making Kuwait the only member to stay below its target.

Daily production in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Libya and Ecuador each increased by 10,000 barrels a day. While Venezuelan and Algerian output was unchanged from the prior month.

Iraqi oil output fell 50,000 barrels to 2.4 million barrels a day in November, according to the survey. A pipeline connecting the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk with the Ceyhan oil export terminal in Turkey was shut 21 November through 30 November after an explosion, according to an official with Iraq's North Oil Co.

 

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