OPEC says its 2009 oil exports earned $575.3 bil, down $426.7 bil

OPEC says its 2009 oil exports earned $575.3 bil, down $426.7 bil

By Margaret McQuaile

July 6 - OPEC's 12 member countries earned a collective $575.3 billion from oil exports in 2009, down $426.7 billion or 43% from the $1.002 trillion earned in 2008, the producer club's Vienna secretariat said July 6 in its Annual Statistical Bulletin.

In percentage terms, Nigeria suffered the biggest revenue fall with 64.2% while Iraq's revenues dropped by the smallest percentage, 26.4%.

OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia saw its earnings plunge by 44% to $157.407 billion from $280.998 billion in 2008, while Iran's oil export revenues dropped by 37.3% to $55.064 billion from $88.66 billion.

OPEC has not given a forecast of how much its members are likely to earn this year. The US Energy Information Adminstration, statistics arm of the Department of Energy, projected that OPEC oil export revenues would rise to $751 billion in 2010 from $573 billion in 2009.

Collective proven crude reserves held by member countries rose by 41 billion barrels, or 4%, to 1.064 trillion barrels in 2009 from 1.023 billion barrels in 2008, the report said.

Venezuela accounted for almost all of the reserves boost. Its proven crude reserves rose by about 39 billion barrels, or 22.5%, year on year, to 211.173 billion barrels in 2009 from 172.323 billion barrels in 2008. Libyan reserves rose by 2.151 billion barrels, or 4.9%, to 46.422 billion barrels from 44.271 billion barrels. Saudi reserves rose by 527 million barrels or 0.2%, to 264.59 billion barrels from 264.063 billion barrels. Iran's crude reserves, however, dipped by 650 million barrels or 0.4%, to 137.01 billion barrels from 137.62 billion barrels.

International crude benchmarks soared to all-time highs of more than $147/barrel in July 2008 and OPEC pushed out more oil as prices rose. But prices subsequently plunged as the global recession bit into oil demand, falling below $40/b by the end of the year. Prices have since climbed to a range of $70-$80/barrel following OPEC's late 2008 agreement to remove 4.2 million b/d of oversupply from world markets.

OPEC's crude production figures, derived from secondary sources, show overall production falling by 3.138 million b/d to 28.927 million b/d in 2009 from 32.075 million b/d in 2008. Yhese figures include production from Iraq, which is not part of the output-cutting agreement. Excluding Iraq, production from the 11 members bound by quotas under a 24.845 million b/d target fell by 3.2 million b/d, to 26.591 million b/d in 2009 from 29.795 million b/d in 2008, the ASB data show.

The data showed that roughly half of OPEC's 2009 crude exports moved to the Asia-Pacific region in 2009. Of the total 22.139 million b/d of crude exports, 11.145 million b/d moved to the Asia-Pacific region, 5.279 million b/d to North America, 3.917 million b/d to Europe, 1.105 million b/d to Latin America, 406,000 b/d to Africa and 296,000 b/d to the Middle East.

OPEC's 2009 crude exports were 1.757 million b/d or 7.4% lower than the 23.895 million b/d exported the previous year.

But while crude exports fell in most member countries, they rose in Angola and Nigeria. Angola exported 1.769 million b/d in 2009, up 69.4% from the 1.044 million b/d exported the previous year. Nigerian exports rose 3%, to 2.16 million b/d in 2009 from 2.098 million b/d in 2008.

Among key member countries, Saudi crude exports fell by 14.4%, to 6.276 million b/d in 2009 from 7.321 million b/d in 2008, and Iranian crude exports fell by 8.5%, to 2.232 million b/d from 2.438 million b/d.

Saudi Arabia and Venezuela were the biggest exporters of refined products, jointly accounting for 1.972 million b/d or 50.3% of the 3.922 million b/d exported by OPEC members in 2009. Saudi products exports averaged 1.008 million b/d last year while those of Venezuela averaged 963,600 b/d. Some 43% of OPEC's product exports moved to the Asia-Pacific region.

Internal consumption of refined products rose by 1.5% overall, to 6.16 million b/d in 2009 from 6.072 million b/d the previous year. Among key members, Saudi consumption fell to 1.405 million b/d from 1.44 million b/d, while Iranian consumption rose to 1.795 million b/d from 1.776 million b/d.

Refining capacity in OPEC countries rose by 2.7% to a collective 8.575 million b/d in 2009 from 8.353 million b/d in 2008.

The number of active drilling rigs in OPEC member countries fell by 37 year on year to 300 in 2009. This meant that OPEC accounted for 11.4% of the active rigs worldwide in 2009, up from 10% in 2008.