The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said secondary sources estimated its oil production fell 79,000 b/d in August to 32.76 million b/d compared with July. It was the first time since April that the oil cartel reported a production drop.
Crude oil production increased in Nigeria while production declined in Libya, Gabon, Venezuela, and Iraq.
OPEC has been working to support oil prices through production-cut targets agreed upon by the group as well as some non-OPEC members. The 1.8 million b/d targets extend through March 2018. The cuts are compared with October 2016 production levels.
In a Monthly Oil Market Report, OPEC said the world would need 32.83 million b/d of OPEC crude next year, up 410,000 b/d from its previous forecast.
OPEC said inventories were falling and a rebalancing of the market is under way.
“The oil market will rebalance over the next year with a major drawdown in crude and product stocks,” OPEC said in the report.
The August production figures mean OPEC’s compliance with its output-cutting pledge stands at 83%, Reuters calculated.
