Market Report & Analysis for 5/15/2019 Morning Edition

Morning Market Overview

Crude production in April by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was flat, down 3,000 bpd to a better than four-year low at 30.031 million bpd, according to secondary sources cited by OPEC in its Monthly Oil Market Report released this morning. Iranian crude production slid 164,000 bpd to 2.554 million bpd in April, with the output rate by the Islamic Republic now lower than at any point during the previous round of U.S. sanctions from 2012 through 2015.

Crude production from Saudi Arabia fell 45,000 bpd to 9.742 million bpd, the fifth consecutive monthly decline, with output at the lowest rate since February 2015.

Crude production also declined in Angola, down 41,000 bpd, Gabon, down 25,000 bpd, Equatorial Guinea, down 10,000 bpd, Congo, down 9,000 bpd, and Algeria, down 5,000 bpd. Iraq, which reached compliance with an OPEC+ production agreement in March, ramped up output by 113,000 bpd to 4.63 million bpd. Production also gained in countries that are exempt from the OPEC+ agreement, including Nigeria, where output increased 92,000 bpd to 1.819 million bpd—a 16-month high.

In Libya, where a civil war is raging, crude production increased 71,000 bpd to 1.176 million bpd, the highest output rate by the North African nation since June 2013. Crude production in Venezuela increased 28,000 bpd from the lowest output rate since widespread strikes in 2003 to 768,000 bpd.