OPEC's largest member tips over oil production output even after cut agreement
Saudi Arabia, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' largest producer, contributed to increased crude oil output from the cartel last month even as it tries to prod other countries into reining in their production in a bid to buoy prices.
OPEC boosted its crude oil output in July by 172,600 barrels a day in July to reach 32.70m b/d, the cartel said in its Oil Market Report for August, led by increases from Libya (+154,300 b/d), Nigeria (+34,300 b/d) and Saudi Arabia (+31,800b/d).
Nevertheless, Saudi Arabia bore the brunt of the burden of OPEC's November 2016 agreement to reduce output.
Offsetting that to a degree, in its latest MOMR the cartel raised its projection for the rate of growth in global oil demand in 2017 by 100,000 b/d to 1.37m b/d with total demand expected to reach 96.49m b/d in the current year and an average of 97.77m in 2018.
Libya and Nigeria were both exempted from the deal to help them recover lost market share due to extraordinary events in each country.
In another possibly positive development for oil markets on Thursday, Saudi Arabia and Iran, OPEC's two largest producers, agreed to renew efforts aimed at reducing their output and to coordinate their countries oil policies.