OPEC countries as a whole over the same period boosted exports by 1.23 million bpd (not including Iran).
Over the past six months, the rise in exports among OPEC member-countries totalled 1.91 million bpd. In April, OPEC, excluding Iran, supplied to the external market 17.8 million bpd, while in October that total was 19.71 million bpd. A rise in exports was also recorded in Algeria (increase of 0.28 million bpd), Congo (increase of 0.11 million bpd), Iraq (increase of 0.07 million bpd), Libya (0.11 million bpd) and the United Arab Emirates (0.30 million bpd).
And the increased exports by these six countries was offset by decreased exports by Angola (decrease of 0.23 million bpd), Nigeria (decrease of 0.21 million bpd), Gabon (0.07 million bpd) Venezuela (0.06 million bpd), Equatorial Guinea (0.04 million bpd) and Kuwait (0.03 million bpd). The cumulative rise amounted to the combined production of Nigeria (1.45 million bpd) and Venezuela (0.61 million bpd).
The increase in exports was a result of the easing of conditions within the OPEC+ agreement.
From May, Saudi Arabia abandoned its voluntary further production cut of 1 million bpd that it had observed in February, March and April. The April OPEC+ summit decisions came into effect under which the alliance was to boost production by 1.4 million bpd in the period from May to July. And in August, the cartel and the other oil producing states joining it began increasing supply by 400,00 bpd.
As a result, the cartel’s production (excluding Iran) rose from 22.74 million bpd in April to 25.02 million bpd in October, according to Refinitiv figures.
In October, Iran ranked fifth in terms of production among OPEC members with 2.48 million bpd, compared to Saudi Arabia (9.78 million bpd), Iraq (4.15 million bpd), the United Arab Emirates (2.83 million bpd) and Kuwait (2.50 million bpd).
However, owing to the oil embargo on Iran, its export volumes (0.28 million bpd) put it only in ninth position among OPEC’s 13 member-states (October figures for Iranian oil exports are not available for the moment).