Platts Survey: October OPEC Oil Output Dropped to 32.26 Mil. Barrels Per Day

London, November 9 (ots/PRNewswire) -

Platts -- The 13 members of the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) pumped an average 32.26 million barrels
per day (b/d) of crude oil in October, according to a Platts survey
of OPEC and oil industry officials just released. This is a 210,000
b/d decline from the September level of 32.47 million b/d.

Excluding Iraq, production from the 12 members hitherto bound by
output agreements fell by 220,000 b/d, to 29.96 million b/d from
30.18 million b/d, the survey showed.

When Indonesia, which will leave OPEC at year end is also
excluded, the survey shows a 210,000 b/d drop in production from the
so-called OPEC-11, to 29.11 million b/d in October from the previous
month's 29.32 million b/d.

OPEC's new output target as of November 1, which excludes both
Indonesia and Iraq, is 27.308 million b/d, following the group's
October 24 decision to cut official production allocations by 1.5
million b/d in hopes of preventing a big supply overhang from
building.

"Even if OPEC cuts 1.5 million b/d from current levels, it still
puts the organization's output above what the International Energy
Agency says the market needs for supply and demand to remain balanced
in the first half of 2009," said Platts Global Director of Oil John
Kingston.

"The IEA most recently has estimated that OPEC needs to produce
30.6 million b/d in the first quarter to balance demand, and 30
million b/d in the second quarter. A 1.5 cut from the most recent
Platts' survey estimate would bring the organization close to that
number in the first quarter, but still put it over in the second." A
cut of 1.8 million b/d is likely required, he says.

There is still question as to how much Saudi Arabia, OPEC's
biggest producer, intends to cut. Having increased output
unilaterally over several months since the spring, citing increased
customer demand rather than an effort to stem the oil price climb
that eventually peaked in early July above US$147/barrel, the kingdom
has been reducing production over the past three months, albeit not
to the level of its 8.943 million b/d allocation. It reduced volumes
by 100,000 b/d in October to 9.4 million b/d.

If Saudi Arabia is to meet its new 8.477 million b/d allocation
as of November 1, it will need to slash production by more than
900,000 b/d.

One industry participant in the survey suggested that Saudi
Arabia, rather than make a deep cut, was aiming to reduce supply to
particular customers that might more readily accept reduced volumes
than others.

UAE output fell by 80,000 b/d to 2.55 million b/d, largely the
result of maintenance that will stretch through November. Iranian
output also fell by 80,000 b/d, to 3.9 million b/d. Other smaller
drops came from Algeria, Kuwait, Qatar, Venezuela and Indonesia.

Angolan output recovered to 1.87 million b/d as production
restarted from BP's Greater Plutonio development. Production was shut
down in August after a fault was discovered in the gas plant of the
field's floating production and storage vessel.

Libya's oil production rose to 1.74 million b/d following the
completion of planned field maintenance at the Total-operated al-Jurf
field.

Iraqi oil ministry figures not publicly available put wellhead
output at 2.4 million b/d in October. With exports at 1.694 million
b/d and internal consumption at 546,000 b/d, this leaves a
considerable volume of "unaccounted for" oil. The overall figure
obtained from the survey is closer to 2.3 million b/d.

For more information on OPEC, go to the "Platts Guide to OPEC" at
http://www.opec.platts.com. For production numbers by country, a
table is available at http://www.platts.com/Oil/Resources/News%20Feat
ures/opec/prod_table.xml.

About Platts:

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