Thomko Petro Chemical Blog

  "There is only bullish news and the market is extremely firm. You would not want to be short heading into Easter with the current uncertainty."
Said a broker at Man Financial following record high IPE Brent future prices. Source: Platts

OPEC's eleven members, including Iraq, pumped an average 29.76 million b/d of crude in March, down 160,000 b/d from February's 29.92 million b/d, a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials showed on April 10.

Excluding Iraq, production from the ten members with quotas fell by 190,000 b/d to 27.94 million b/d and below the official 28 million b/d output ceiling.

Nigeria, where militants in the Niger Delta have intensified attacks on oil installations since the beginning of this year, accounted for the biggest single fall in volumes -- 220,000 b/d.

"Even with oil prices well above $60/barrel, OPEC doesn't appear to be trying to make up for the fall in Nigerian volumes, which supports the view that OPEC-10 production is constrained around the level of the 28 million b/d official ceiling," said John Kingston, global director of oil at Platts.