OPEC’s mission to implement last week’s historic deal to curb production for the first time in eight years just got a little bit harder after three of its African members increased output in November.
Crude production from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries rose to a record 34.16 million barrels a day in November with gains led by Angola, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts, oil companies and ship-tracking data. That’s up from a revised 33.96 million barrels a day in October.
Nigeria and Libya — which aren’t bound by the OPEC cuts because their output has suffered from sanctions and oil infrastructure sabotage — also boosted production by a combined 140,000 barrels a day last month.
OPEC will implement those cuts from Jan. 1 with the help of Russia, which has vowed to slash its own output by 300,000 barrels a day, the same as the combined reduction proposed for other non-OPEC nations. OPEC is holding talks with non-OPEC nations on Dec. 10 in Vienna to ink a deal.
Angola’s output increased by 170,000 barrels a day, with volumes rebounding following field maintenance in October. Iran’s output stayed relatively steady at 3.67 million barrels a day while Saudi Arabia’s, OPEC’s de-facto leader, lowered its daily production by 50,000 barrels to 10.53 million.
Bloomberg