IEA:OPEC reaches record high in oil production in December

Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 18 / Trend A. Badalova / OPEC production increased by 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 30.89 million bpd in December, 2011, which is the highest level in more than three years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) report on oil market published on Wednesday, says. IEA said the increase in OPEC production last month was observed on a rapid recovery in supplies from Libya, and lesser increases from Saudi Arabia and the UAE. OPEC in December raised its output target to 30 million barrels per day for 2012, close to IEA's projections for the 'call on OPEC crude and stock change', the report said. According to IEA's estimates, non-OPEC supply fell by 140,000 bpd to 53.2 mln bpd in December. Middle East unrest and other unplanned outages limited annual growth in 2011 to only 45,000 bpd, IEA report says. IEA forecasts non-OPEC output to increase by 340,000 bpd in the first quarter of 2012 and by 1 mln bpd to 53.7 mln bpd in 2012 overall. According to IEA's forecasts, world oil demand growth will amount to 1.1 mln bpd in 2012. Last month IEA predicted global oil demand growth at 1.3 mln bpd. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az