Gulf OPEC producers Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are between them boosting crude supplies this month, lifting total cartel output above 30 million barrels per day (bpd), OPEC sources said on this week.
OPEC producers have said they will increase supply to the highest level in 25 years to build global stockpiles ahead of expected high demand in the fourth quarter.
Top world oil exporter Saudi Arabia is contributing around 9.5 million bpd of a total 30.1 million bpd May production, a Gulf OPEC delegate said.
Overall output from the 11-member producer group may swell to 30.5 million bpd towards the fourth quarter as the cartel seeks to accelerate its stockbuilding drive to meet higher winter demand, the delegate said.
Oil prices are down around more than eight dollars from record highs hit in April after higher OPEC supply swells U.S. inventories to their highest level in six years. U.S. crude was up 14 cents at $49.81 a barrel on Wednesday.
Core Gulf producers Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have led the supply increases. Production from Kuwait is running at 2.65 million bpd in May versus around 2.58 million bpd last month, an OPEC source said.
Estimates of the cartel’s actual production have varied widely. An OPEC source had said earlier that Saudi Arabia raised production by 150,000 bpd this month to 9.65 million bpd out of total May production of 30.2 million bpd.
OPEC President Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah, also Kuwait’s oil minister, said earlier this month that Saudi output was running at “almost” 10 million bpd and that OPEC would in total produce 30.3 million bpd in May and June.
That would put cartel supply above 25-year highs hit in September and October last year of 30.15 million bpd.
OPEC’s supply efforts are expected to intensify towards the fourth quarter, when cartel output may rise to 30.5 million bpd, the OPEC source said.
Saudi Arabia could provide a significant portion of the extra supply coming later this year, he said. The kingdom’s official output capacity is 11 million bpd.
