Despite the clamour by the poorer members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) for the cartel to reduce crude oil production due to the drop in prices, OPEC’s daily output climbed to a three-year high in June.
Saudi Arabia and Iraq hit record or near-record output, despite the clamour by the poorer members, as well as outages in Nigeria and Libya that reduced exports.Riyadh and its gulf allies have opposed any reduction in OPEC’s output, so as not to lose market share to shale oil. Due to the loading delays at the Bonny export terminal and a force majeure on exports of Forcados crude, Nigeria’s output increased by only 60,000 barrels per day. According Reuters survey, the boost from OPEC puts output further above its target of 30 million barrels