18 April 2012, Sweetcrude, HOUSTON – THE United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) says the 12 member nations in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) fold would be earning a whopping $1.171 trillion from oil export this year.
Members of the body would also earn $1.133 trillion in 2013, up from $1.03 trillion in 2011, the EIA further said in its recently released Short-term Energy Outlook (STEO).
OPEC power house, Saudi Arabia, is responsible for the largest share of these earnings – $312billion, representing about 30 per cent of total OPEC revenues.
EIA also said electricity generation from coal would decline by about 10 per cent this year as generation from natural gas increases by about 17 per cent.
In 2013, according to it, electricity generation from coal will increase by about 7 per cent and generation from natural gas fall by 3 percent.
In its annual report OPEC had revealed that its total oil export earnings rose to about $650 billion in 2010 from $518 billion in 2009 mainly because of an increase of nearly $15 in oil prices.
The body earned a recorded an all-time high income of around $966 billion in 2008 when crude prices reached the highest level ever at averaged nearly $147 per barrel.
OPEC’s crude oil production averaged 31.39 million barrels per day (mbpd) in March, representing an increase of 120,000 barrel per day (bpd) from an estimated 31.27 million bpd in February.
A recent survey by Platts showed that production increases totaling 320,000 bpd from Iraq, Libya and Saudi Arabia were partly offset by decreases totaling 200,000 bpd from Angola and Iran.
Oil output from the organisation had risen in February to the highest since October 2008 due to a further recovery in Libya’s production, higher supplies from Angola and Saudi Arabia, a Reuters survey of sources at oil companies, OPEC officials and analysts had revealed.
Supply from member countries had averaged 31.23 million barrels per day (bpd), up from 30.95 million bpd in January, the survey showed. The survey also suggested OPEC was producing over 1.2 million bpd more than its target of 30 million bpd.
The March estimate, the survey noted leaves OPEC exceeding its 30 million bpd output target by 1.39 million bpd. The target does not include individual country quotas.