In OPEC’s Monthly Oil Market Report for January 2019, the organisation revealed that OPEC-14 production “averaged 31.58mn bpd in December, a decrease of 751,000 bpd over the previous month. Crude oil output decreased mostly in Saudi Arabia, Libya, IR Iran and UAE, while production rose in Iraq.”
Saudi Arabia dropped its output by 468,000 bpd compared to November 2018, while Libya saw cuts of 172,000 bpd and Iran, faced with US sanction, had a supply drop of 159,000 bpd. The UAE cut production by 65,000 bpd. Iraq was the only country to post a significant monthly increase in production, at 88,000 bpd.
Non-OPEC producers increased production by 40,000 bpd in December, averaging 68.44mn bpd (a year-on-year increase of 3.24mn bpd). The increase was mainly driven by OECD Americas, the report noted.
Overall, global production (OPEC and Non-OPEC) decreased month-on-month in December by 0.35mn bpd to average 100.02mn bpd. But year-on-year, December production grew by 2.83mn bpd, compared with production in December 2017.Â
