Saudi Oil Attacks Send OPEC+ Compliance Soaring Past 200%

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Saudi-Oil-Attacks-Send-OPEC-Compliance-Soaring-Past-200.html

OPEC and its non-OPEC allies in the production cut deal achieved a compliance rate of more than 200 percent with their cuts in September, mainly due to last month’s attacks on vital oil infrastructure in OPEC’s largest producer Saudi Arabia, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Monday.

Last month, Saudi Arabia witnessed an unprecedented attack on its oil infrastructure, which knocked 5.7 million bpd - or 5 percent of global oil supply - offline.

Due to this attack, OPEC’s total production slumped by 1.318 million bpd from August to 28.491 million bpd in September, according to the secondary sources in OPEC’s closely-watched Monthly Oil Market Report.

This figure, reported by OPEC last week - is very close to the Platts survey from earlier last week which found that OPEC pumped 28.45 million bpd of crude oil last month, down by 1.48 million bpd from August - the steepest monthly drop in nearly 17 years.

According to OPEC’s secondary sources, production in Saudi Arabia plunged by 1.28 million bpd to 8.564 million bpd in September. The Saudis, however, self-reported to OPEC that production was down by just 660,000 bpd in September from August, at 9.129 million bpd.

Among other members with lower production as per OPEC’s secondary sources, non-compliant Iraq and Nigeria cut some of their overproduction last month but were still off target. Related: Inventory Build Sends Oil Prices Lower

Crude oil production in Iran further declined, by 34,000 bpd to 2.159 million bpd, amid the U.S. sanctions restricting Iranian oil exports. Venezuela’s crude oil production plunged again, by 82,000 bpd to average just 644,000 bpd in September, according to OPEC’s secondary sources.

The largest non-OPEC producer part of the pact, Russia, saw its oil production inch down in September, to 11.25 million bpd from 11.29 million bpd in August, but still above Moscow’s cap under the deal. Russia has vowed that it is still looking to comply with its share of the cuts.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com