“Angola Overtakes Nigeria in Crude Oil Production” – OPEC
Latest data from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, has shown that Nigeria’s crude oil production plunged by 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) in November, making the country lose its status as Africa’s top oil producer to Angola.
Nigeria recorded the biggest drop in output in November among its peers in OPEC, followed by Saudi Arabia, the group’s biggest producer.
OPEC, in its latest monthly oil market report, put crude oil production from Nigeria at 1.607 million bpd in November based on direct communication, down from 1.812 million bpd in October.
Angola also saw its oil output drop to 1.722 million bpd last month from 1.762 million bpd in October.
Meanwhile, the oil cartel will hold urgent talks, if crude prices don’t recover by February, according to OPEC president and Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu.
‘It is expected that the upward trend in oil prices will be seen by February next year. If it does not happen, it is clear that OPEC will need to have a very urgent meeting,” Interfax quoted the OPEC president as saying.
On December 4, OPEC decided to keep the current output level of around 31.5 million barrels per day despite oversupply on the global oil market.
On Monday, Brent and WTI benchmarks sank to lows not seen since 2009. Brent crude fell below $37 a barrel while the US benchmark WTI dropped to below $35 per barrel.
Crude prices rebounded slightly in early trading yesterday with Brent trading at $37.73 and WTI at $36.18 per barrel as of 8.36am GMT.
OPEC produced 31.7 million barrels per day in November.
It is the highest output in over three years and 1.7 million barrels per day over its former production limit.
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I am also skeptical of a sueddn drop in Saudi production, but equally so of anything above their previous peak.Also, they have a very brisk pace of internal consumption growth which limits their net exports.The Oil shock of ’08 did not come, as might be thought from the wording, as a shock. It was a shock in terms of effects but not in the way it arrived, which sets it apart from the 70s shocks.Remember, back in ’06, the world was still learning to deal with oil around 50-60 dollars per barrel on a consistent basis. Prices crept up incrementally for a number of years and if the Saudis indeed did have all that reserve capacity which we’ve all been told for years then, again, why did they fail to use it in the first months of 2008 and ahead until the early summer of that same year?Unless you think they were clumpsy or acted in a conspiracy to bring the world economy down, there has to be a rational(at least from their narrow national, or geologial, perspectice) reason for this.Yes, it takes time to produce new oil but Aramco has some of the best people employed by them from overseas and they’ve been in the business for a very long time now. If laymen like us can predict rough oildemand and what’s needed to meet it based on production data from across the world, it would be foolish to think that Aramco can’t, given all their genuine expertise and massive resources at hand.I’m sorry, there are too many inconsistencies to just accept flatly out of hand for me to drop this on it’s face and just carelessly move on.Saudi Arabia continues to be the puzzle of which the Peak Oil event, when it will occur and how serious, continues to hinge upon. And while I didn’t dabble in Simmons’ prophecies of doom, I still found it closer to the mark than the conventional wisdom spouted by the MSM and the Saudis themselves(Perhaps the most amusing one was the Economist statement in 2006).