Monitoring Desk
LONDON: The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil production rose in December, despite an agreement by the wider OPEC+ countries to cut output targets to support the market, Reuters said on Wednesday.
The OPEC pumped twenty-nine million barrels per day in December, the Reuters survey found, up 120,000 bpd from November. OPEC output had been its highest in September, since 2020.
December’s increase was led by recovering production in Nigeria. Many Nigerian crude streams produced more in last month of 2022, sources in the survey said, with some companies citing improving security situation.
OPEC and oil production
OPEC+ had been boosting production for most of last year as demand recovered. For the month of November, with oil prices weakening, the OPEC made its largest cut to output targets since the early days of the Covid-19 in 2020.
Its decision from the month of November called for a two million bpd cut to the OPEC+ production target, of which 1.27 million bpd was meant to come from the 10 OPEC countries. The same target applied in December, 2022.
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With the rebound in Nigerian production in December, compliance with the agreement weakened slightly to 161 % of pledged cuts, according to the survey, down from 163 % in November.
Production is still undershooting targeted amounts due to many producers – notably Angola and Nigeria- lack the capacity to pump at the agreed levels.
The 10 OPEC members needed to cut production pumped 780,000 bpd below the group’s December target, the survey found. The shortfall in last November was 800,000 bpd.
