Oil shipments from Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, excluding Angola and Ecuador, are expected to fall by 120,000 barrels a day in the four weeks to Jan. 2, tanker tracker Oil Movements said Thursday.
Oil shipments from Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, excluding Angola and Ecuador , are expected to fall by 120,000 barrels a day in the four weeks to Jan. 2, tanker tracker Oil Movements said Thursday.

The dip in exports come as rising oil prices, despite weak demand, have pressured refinery margins and kept a lid on oil processing rates, said Roy Mason, head of Oil Movements.

In spite of expectations of a week-on-week decline for shipments, comparing the month-on-month data shows a rise in OPEC's exports on the back of healthy demand from Asia .

"All the incremental demand is coming from the East right now. At this point Eastbound shipments from the (Persian) Gulf are near record highs," Mason said, but added Westbound volumes remained thin.

The contango price structure in the oil markets - where near-term contracts are priced cheaper than those further into the future - also has export levels high despite currently weak fundamentals, offering potential profits from buying oil products at current prices, storing it and selling it at a higher price in the future, Mason noted.

Exports from the 10 OPEC countries are forecast at 22.96 million barrels a day in the four weeks to Jan. 2, up from 22.78 million barrels a day in the month to Dec. 5.

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