Platts survey has revealed that oil production from Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) totalled 30.03mn bpd in December 2014, up 20,000 bpd from a month earlier
According to the survey, the increase comes as Iraq effectively resumed exports to the north through Turkey since early March 2014.
It added that Saudi Arabia has maintained its oil output at 9.6mn bpd.
John Kingston, global director of news at Platts, said, “The one piece of bullish news in this report is the drop in Libyan output. The sharp rise in Libyan production in the second half of the year was one of the catalysts for the oil price’s steep decline.”
Libyan output fell back to its lowest monthly level since July 2014, averaging just 460,000 bpd in December 2014. The National Oil Corporation had managed to boost output to one million bpd in late October 2014 and had hopes of reaching 1.4mn bpd by the end of 2014, added Kingston.
Iraqi officials noted that the current supplies of Iraqi crude oil via Kurdistan Region of Iraq to Ceyhan in Turkey were running at 150,000 bpd.
Platts is a global provider of energy, petrochemicals, metals and agriculture information and a source of benchmark prices for the physical and futures markets.
