Crude Oil Output Is Soaring in Iraq, Easing Markets

VIENNA — OPEC oil exporters on Thursday were in no mood to fight over how much crude to produce and instead weighed the impact of rising supplies of U.S. shale and a looming turf war in Asia. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has little room to pump more oil due to the U.S. oil boom that has sparked competition for marketshare in Asia and set off a rivalry between its top two producers Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

VIENNA — OPEC oil exporters, basking in the market’s equilibrium, agreed to leave output policy unchanged on Friday as oil held around the group’s preferred level of $100 a barrel. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will retain its 30 million barrels per day (bpd) production target for the rest of this year, said Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez, after a swift meeting at OPEC headquarters. The group is due to gather again on December 4.

What will be the economic effects of this week's developments in Libya? We have a fair amount of historical experience from which to try to answer that question.

LONDON, June 12 (Reuters) - The world is heading for a glut of refined products as new Asian and Middle East refineries increase oil processing in a move likely to force less advanced competitors in developed countries to close, the West's energy agency said on Wednesday.

Brent crude oil rose more than $1 to a 12-week high on Thursday after news of a sharp cut in Saudi oil production, an explosion in Yemen that halted most of the country’s oil exports and bullish Chinese trade data. Saudi Arabia cut its crude oil production by around 700,000 barrels a day (bpd) over the last two months of last year, with December output at around 9.0 million bpd, an industry source familiar with Saudi oil policy said.

Soaring U.S. oil production should be enough to allow consumers withstand most potential supply shocks, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday, as it cut estimates for global oil demand. “The oil-producing world today is in the midst of a onceinageneration transition of farreaching consequences,” the IEA, which coordinates the energy policies of major consuming nations, said in its monthly oil market report.

It will take focus and determination over the next several years to open new markets. And that is job one for my government CALGARY, Alberta — Alberta’s premier warned on Thursday that the Western Canadian province faced a $6 billion shortfall in revenue due to deeply discounted prices for its crude oil but offered no specifics on how to prevent falling deeper into the red.

OPEC’s likely decision to leave quotas unchanged next week belies the growing prospect of having to make the deepest oil-production cuts since 2009 as a global supply surge threatens to weaken prices. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may need to lower output by 1 million barrels a day, or 3%, in the first half of next year, according to Societe Generale SA. Brent crude may drop 20% by June if the group doesn’t reduce the amount it pumps, the Centre for Global Energy Studies said.