The value of OPEC members’ petroleum exports fell below $1 trillion in 2014 for the first time since 2010, according to its annual report, demonstrating the toll last year’s oil-price collapse took on the group.

Exports from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries fell in value to $993.3 billion last year, from $ 1.112 trillion in 2013, the report said, as oil prices fell below $60 a barrel at the end of 2014 from highs above $114 last summer.

The report illustrated the shifts rocking the oil industry and OPEC’s 12 member nations before the producer group made its historic decision last November and abandoned its role of regulating the market through production cuts. Now, the group’s members are pumping flat out and fighting for markets against private oil companies, other nations and among themselves.

Before ramping up to about 31 million barrels a day of production this year, OPEC averaged 30.07 million barrels a day in 2014, a decrease of 160,000 barrels a day from a year earlier, the report said.

Its share of the global crude oil supply dropped to 32.6 percent from 33.5 percent during the same period.

The main reduction in output came from Libya, while the greatest rise was seen in Iraq, OPEC said, citing secondary sources such as shippers, analysts and industry sources.

The last time the value of OPEC exports was below $1 trillion was in 2010, when they were worth about $745 billion. Oil prices then rose and for three years hovered around $100 a barrel, boosting OPEC members’ revenues.


Source:http://www.nairausd.com/2015/06/opec-2014-exports-fall-below-1t.html

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