Crude oil production from members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries rose again in March as Iraq boosted exports, despite reports that threatened sanctions were already restricting Iranian output.
Crude oil production from members of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries rose again in March as Iraq boosted exports, despite
reports that threatened sanctions were already restricting Iranian output.
Crude production from the 12 members of the group was up by 145,000 barrels a
day from February, at 31.705 million barrels a day, according to a Dow Jones
Newswires survey of industry sources and analysts.
Saudi Arabian production continued to hover around record levels, but the
biggest change on the previous month was an extra 252,000 barrels a day from
Iraq
,
which commissioned a new offshore oil export terminal.
"Additional export capacity is now available after the first of four new
crude export facilities was started off the coast of
Basra
,"
said JBC Energy in a research note.
Iran
's oil
production fell by just 30,000 barrels a day, to 3.44 million barrels a day. Despite
reports that
Iran
's
exports were already being curtailed by Western sanctions intended to pressure
the country over its nuclear program, analysts said there was little evidence
of a major effect on production.
"We don't think
Iran
has
curtailed production yet," said Samuel Ciszuk of KBC Energy Economics. Even
if exports are constrained,
Iran
will
continue to produce oil and put it into storage ships, he said.
"The big production hit is really coming in May," he said. "Pretty
much everyone seems to be cutting [Iranian oil purchases] by 15%-20%," and
the country's output will probably fall 700,000 barrels a day by July, he said.
Continued expansion of oil production from
Libya
,
Nigeria
and
Iraq
this
year may mean that the world can absorb this loss of Iranian oil without having
to lean too heavily on the spare production capacity of
Saudi
Arabia
, Ciszuk said.
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