BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 16. OPEC+ member countries saw a decrease in crude oil output by 90 kb/d to 41.43 mb/d in April, Trend reports.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), this drop was attributed to Russia fulfilling some of its pledged output cuts for the second quarter of 2024. Despite this, higher production from exempt countries like Iran and Libya, along with Nigeria, helped balance the overall decline within the bloc. While there was a slight reduction in output from Iraq and Kazakhstan, both countries continued to exceed their quotas.
In efforts to address overproduction from the first quarter of 2024, Iraq and Kazakhstan have agreed to reduce crude oil flows starting from May. They plan to compensate for this through field maintenance and lower seasonal internal consumption. The output from the group's 18 countries, which are subject to quotas, exceeded an implied target by 510 kb/d, reaching 33.97 mb/d in April.
Within OPEC, production from its 12 members increased by 120 kb/d to 26.97 mb/d, while output from the 10 non-OPEC nations declined by 210 kb/d to 14.46 mb/d. Consequently, effective spare capacity, excluding Iran and Russia due to sanctions, stood at 5.9 mb/d, with Saudi Arabia accounting for 52% of this buffer.
Thus, the IEA forecasts OPEC+ oil output to stand at 49.8 mb/d in 2024, with a further rise to 50.2 mb/d in 2025.
OPEC+ is set to convene on June 1st to review its existing supply policy. The IEA's current forecasts for non-OPEC+ supply and global demand indicate that the call on OPEC+ will average 42.1 mb/d of crude oil in the second half of this year, which is 670 kb/d higher than its April output.