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OPEC Strategy Records Lowest Revenue in a Decade

by | Jun 23, 2016 | Business |

OPEC Strategy Records Lowest Revenue in a Decade

Khobar- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) revealed in its annual report member countries registering in 2015 the lowest revenue rates since 2005.

The report, issued on Wednesday, confirms figures previously circulated by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

OPEC stated that crude oil revenue had a 46 percent drop in 2015 compared to 2014, collecting 518 billion dollars-lowest in the past decade.

OPEC revenue plunged with the fall in oil price rates. The drop came after OPEC’s de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, abandoned its role as swing producer in 2014, leading a transformation in agglomeration policies. Abstaining from traditional price bolstering methods through lowering production, Saudi Arabia allowed the market to self-recover.

OPEC added in its report that member countries’ budget deficit reached 99.6 billion dollars in 2015, faced with a 238 billion-dollar excess. This is the first time that OPEC members register an account deficit since 1998.

Saudi Arabia has been greatly affected with Saudi export income recording 158 billion dollars in 2015, half of 2013’s revenue, according to OPEC figures.

As for information circulated by the EIA, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia recorded 130 billion dollar revenue in crude export, which is lower than 2005’s 140 billion dollars.

On the other hand, Iran disclosed a 27 billion dollar revenue, which is a quarter of what it had recorded in 2012, after the U.S. and the European Union started imposing sanctions because of the nuclear program.

As for Libya, OPEC’s lowest income recipient in 2015 with less than five billion dollars.

Albeit, oil price rates are expected to increase in 2017, OPEC’s income of 2016 and 2017 will not better the EIA’s predicted figures of 2005, keeping OPEC’s

income at a low compared to its preceding four years. The EIA figures, however, are not adjusted with inflation.

For its part, the U.S. EIA takes a punt on OPEC 2017 production, putting it at 33.04mn b/d, 690,000 b/d up on a forecast 32.35mn b/d for this year. OPEC surplus capacity falls to 1.33mn b/d next year from 1.54mn b/d this year and over 2mn b/d in 2014.