OPEC Cuts Supply 3.8% This Month, PetroLogistics Says

By Grant Smith

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- OPEC will cut oil supplies by 3.8 percent this month as the group implements its Oct. 24 resolution to reduce production, according to provisional data from Geneva-based consultant PetroLogistics Ltd.

Thirteen members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which provides more than 40 percent of the world’s oil, supplied 30.98 million barrels a day this month, compared with 32.2 million a day in October, PetroLogistics founder Conrad Gerber said today by telephone from Geneva.

The reduction was led by Saudi Arabia, which trimmed supplies to 8.95 million barrels a day in November from 9.49 million the previous month, PetroLogistics data showed. The 11 OPEC states subject to output quotas will produce 27.8 million barrels a day in November, in excess of their official limits, Gerber said. That’s down from 29.05 million barrels last month.

“They haven’t achieved their target yet, but they did reduce,” Gerber said.

OPEC is due to meet in Cairo on Nov. 29 and again in Algeria on Dec. 17 after its decision last month to slash production by 1.5 million barrels a day failed to stop oil prices crashing to below $50 a barrel in New York. That Oct. 29 resolution gave the 11 members bound by quotas a ceiling of 27.3 million barrels a day.

Iran, the organization’s second-largest member, trimmed supplies by 80,000 barrels a day to 3.67 million a day in November, according to PetroLogistics.

Kuwait’s supplies fell to 2.5 million barrels a day from 2.68 million; the United Arab Emirates declined to 2.33 million from 2.56 million; Nigeria contracted to 1.93 million from 1.95 million; and Venezuela to 2.32 million from 2.33 million barrels a day.

To contact the reporter on this story: Grant Smith in London at gsmith52@bloomberg.net