OpeOluwani Akintayo
10 August 2017, Sweetcrude, Lagos – The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, says Natural Gas Liquids, NGL, production by its member countries will grow by 0.17 million barrels per day, mb/d, and 0.18 mb/d to average 6.31 mb/d and 6.49 mb/d, respectively.
This is contained in the OPEC Monthly Market Report for August published on Thursday.
Natural gas liquids are hydrocarbons—in the same family of molecules as natural gas and crude oil, composed exclusively of carbon and hydrogen. Ethane, propane, butane, isobutane, and pentane are all NGLs.
In July, OPEC said its production increased by 173 tb/d to average 32.87 mb/d, according to secondary sources. As a result, preliminary data indicates that global oil supply increased by 0.17 mb/d in July, to average 97.30 mb/d.
The forecast for OPEC NGLs and non-conventional liquids in 2017 has been left unchanged averaging 6.3 mb/d, representing growth of 0.17 mb/d. This follows last month’s upward revision of 90 tb/d following Equatorial Guinea joining OPEC. In 2018, due to the number of planned projects, a growth of 0.18 mb/d y-o-y is anticipated, with average output at 6.22 mb/d. These projects are expected to be mainly in Iran and Saudi Arabia.