The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, crude production slid in February from the highest level in Bloomberg data, going back 20 years, a survey has revealed.
The Cartel production dropped by 79,000 barrels to 33.06 million barrels a day in February, according to a Bloomberg survey of oil companies, producers and analysts.
According to the data, Nigeria and Iraq led declines, while Iranian production climbed to the highest level in more than three years.
Nigeria’s oil production dropped as Royal Dutch Shell’s Nigerian venture suspended the flow of Forcados crude to the export terminal following a spill.
The country’s oil production fell by 139,000 barrels a day to 1.889 million barrels, the biggest decline in the survey, which noted that Nigerian output is volatile because of political unrest and theft in the Niger Delta region.
Similarly, Iraqi production dropped by 125,000 barrels a day to 4.385 million barrels this month, according to the survey. Iraq, OPEC’s second-biggest producer pumped 4.51 million barrels a day in January, the highest level in monthly data compiled by Bloomberg going back to 1989.
The report which revealed that most of the decline in February output was involuntary, showed Iraq with the biggest production drop due to the stoppage in flow along the pipeline carrying crude from the Kurdish region.
According to an analyst at Petromatrix, Olivier Jakob. “The interruption from Kurdistan is significant because they were a big part of the increase in exports from Iraq, it is prompt supplies and these are large volumes.”
