OPEC ministers also marked the 50th anniversary of the organization and inaugurated a brand-new headquarters building in Vienna, which events seemed to consume more interest than the quota setting they do at each of their quarterly get-togethers.
OPEC held quotas steady despite predicting that the demand for OPEC oil would decline in 2010-which would be the third year in a row for a fall in OPEC sales.
OPEC said it expected global oil consumption to rise, but said this oil would be supplied by non-members of OPEC who have been boosting capacity.
As OPEC ministers gathered in Vienna, Platt’s, the major oil industry publication, released its monthly tabulation of oil production for February. This showed that every single one of the 11 OPEC members was producing over quota.
OPEC’s total production is supposed to be 24.845 million barrels a day. But Platt’s said it was over that quota by 1.9 million or 7.7 percent.
The biggest overproducer was Iran, which pumped 426,000 barrels a day over quota during February or almost a quarter of the total overproduction of the 11 OPEC states.
In percentage terms, however, Iran’s 12.8 percent over quota was beaten by Nigeria’s 16.2 percent and Angola’s 27.5 percent.
After the current quotas were first set in December 2008, the Arab states around the Persian Gulf cane into compliance quickly. After several months of carping about Iran and other violators, the Arab countries gave up and started over-producing as well. Saudi Arabia is the closest OPEC state to compliance, being just 2.3 percent over quota in February.
Oil prices have held steady in the $70-$80 range for six straight months and really haven’t moved very much for 10 months.
Even Iran, normally a price hawk who calls on other members to reduce quotas, publicly advocated sticking with current quotas before last week’s meeting. That may be because other members have expressed considerable displeasure with Iran’s perpetual over-production and view its calls for quota cuts as an effort to benefit by price rises at their expense.
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