Page 9 - AfrOil Week 31 2022

AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil

OPEC members boost July

output, agree to small uptick

GLOBAL MIDDLE Eastern OPEC members increased oil 100,000 bpd for September despite Biden and
production in July, backing up the group’s prom- other Western leaders’ best efforts to influence
ise to help ease oil market constraints. Mean- a greater hike.
while, the OPEC+ group agreed to another The largest quota expansion will be for Russia
small rise in September targets during its meet- and Saudi Arabia, whose politically influenced
ing this week. quotas will maintain parity, climbing by 26,000
According to a Bloomberg survey of Rystad bpd for the month to 11.03mn bpd, a level
Energy, Kpler and Rapidan Energy and others, neither are likely to produce at for a sustained
OPEC added 270,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil period.
output in July, with Saudi Arabia accounting for In the case of Russia, this is largely because of
around 180,000 bpd of the increase. This took its the impact of sanctions on markets for its crude,
daily output for the month to 10.78mn bpd, the while Riyadh is keen to hold back as much of its
highest level since it briefly achieved a single-day remaining ‘spare capacity’ as possible. Majority
record of 12.2mn bpd in April 2020 and 53,000 state-owned Saudi Aramco claims a maximum
bpd beneath its quota. sustainable capacity (MSC) of 12mn bpd, which
News of the latest uptick follows US Pres- rises to around 12.2mn bpd with the inclusion
ident Joe Biden saying that he anticipated that of Saudi’s share of the Partitioned Neutral Zone
Riyadh would take “further steps” to ease pres- (PNZ) that it shares with Kuwait. Iraq’s quota
sure on supply/demand dynamics. will rise by 12,000 bpd to 4.663mn bpd.
Other OPEC members – namely, the UAE Speaking to Reuters, Raad Alkadiri, man-
and Kuwait – also expanded output, with the aging director for energy, climate and sustain-
former hitting 3.24mn bpd, outproducing its ability at Eurasia Group, said that the increase
quota by 113,000 bpd. Abu Dhabi has long “is so little as to be meaningless.” He continued:
argued that its baseline for OPEC+ agreements “From a physical standpoint, it is a marginal
should be significantly higher than its 3.168mn blip. As a political gesture [to Biden], it is almost
bpd level and state-owned Abu Dhabi National insulting.”
Oil Co. (ADNOC) continues to work on vari- Meanwhile, Dr. Yousef Alshammari, CEO &
ous projects that will raise its production capac- head of oil research at CMarkits, said via social
ity from the current 4.2mn bpd to 5mn bpd by media that the move provides “a partial offset
2027. to shortfalls in production targets by many
Efforts by the top producers countered producing members while maintaining spare
reductions elsewhere, with Angola, Iran and capacity at around 2.1mn bpd held mainly with
Nigeria all seeing their output fall during July. Saudi Arabia and UAE.”
However, as Saudi Arabia and the UAE in He added: “While this move was expected a
particular have consistently argued, there is little while ago, prices may take a partial effect due to
more they can or will do to ease supply short- the pre-existing impact of inflation and fears of
falls, and OPEC+ signed off an increase of just recession.” ™

INVESTMENT
Tunisia needs to adjust fuel prices

to fill finance gap, minister says

TUNISIA TUNISIA’S Industry, Mines and Energy Minis- among main civil forces, especially the labour
ter Neila Nouira Gonji said on, August 2 that the union UGTT, which has previously rejected any
fuel prices in the country needed to be adjusted measures that could ultimately raise the burden
to cope with soaring international prices. of living costs on the already-suffering low-in-
The statement was expected to provoke anger come population.

Week 30 28•July•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9