"It's an indication that OPEC is sensitive to the recent tightening of the market, and we hope they're going to continue responding to market signals."
Lawrence Eagles, head of the Paris-based International Energy Agency's Oil Markets Division, told Platts by telephone. OPEC's official communique announced a 500,000 b/d increase "in the volume of crude supplied to the market." OPEC secretary general Abdalla el-Badri said the new target for the OPEC-10 was 27.25 million b/d. OPEC's head of research Hasan Qabazard said the 500,000 b/d increase was based on estimated August production of 26.75 million b/d. The new target is 1.45 million b/d more than the previous 25.8 million b/d target set in February.

Updated: September 12, 2007