OPEC Oil Supply Rises 100,000 bpd in March

OPEC Oil Supply Rises in March, PetroLogistics Says
By Grant Smith
March 28 (Bloomberg)

OPEC's crude-oil supply has probably increased by 100,000 barrels a day, or 0.3 percent, in March, according to preliminary estimates from PetroLogistics Ltd.

The 13 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries have supplied 32.9 million barrels a day this month, up from 32.8 million a day in February, data from the Geneva-based tanker-tracking service showed.

Iranian output accounted for most of the gain, rising to 4.05 million barrels a day from 3.92 million a day, the consultant said. Iran is OPEC's second-largest producer.

``Iran had rather a difficult time in February due to weather-related loading delays, and this month they're bringing it back up again,'' Conrad Gerber, founder of PetroLogistics, said in a telephone interview from Geneva.

Iraqi exports from the southern port of Basra have dropped by about 70,000 barrels a day this month to 1.65 million barrels a day because of interruptions including an explosion on the Zubair-1 pipeline yesterday, Gerber said. The two main pipelines serving the Basra oil terminal were unaffected by the blast, an Iraqi official said.

PetroLogistics estimates the quantity of crude supplied to the market, including to consumers in the producing countries themselves, rather than well-head output.

OPEC, the producer of more than 40 percent of the world's oil, has no plans to increase output even if ministers meet informally next month, group President Chakib Khelil said, according to Algeria's state-run news service APS.

Analysts and banks including Societe Generale SA and London's Centre for Global Energy Studies said before OPEC's last gathering on March 5 that the group would probably make unofficial production cuts in the coming quarter to avert a supply glut.

Saudi Arabia Output Above OPEC Quota

Saudi Arabia Output Above OPEC Quota, Al-Naimi Says
By Maher Chmaytelli and Alexander Kwiatkowski
March 5
(Bloomberg)

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, is producing above its OPEC quota because the market needs more crude, Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said.

Saudi Arabia is producing 9.2 million barrels a day of oil, al-Naimi said today in an interview in Vienna, where the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is meeting to decide production targets. Bloomberg calculates that Saudi Arabia has a production target of about 8.9 million barrels.

``That's what the market needs,'' he said.

OPEC will study the ``fundamentals'' when deciding what to do with production and customers aren't indicating that demand for oil is weakening, he said.

``Our aim is to keep supply and demand balanced with stocks standing at 5-year average,'' al-Naimi said. The Saudi minister earlier told al-Hayat newspaper that a change to production isn't justified because supply and demand are stable.

Al-Naimi said he wouldn't be ``surprised'' if OPEC held an emergency meeting before it meets again in September. ``The aim would be to ensure market balance,'' he said.

OPEC will leave production targets unchanged at today's meeting, according to 10 of the group's 13 members. Representatives including ministers from Iran, Venezuela and Algeria have told Bloomberg that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will hold output steady.