*Oil hits $68/b
OpeOluwani Akintayo
04 January 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, and its non-OPEC partners’ compliances to the oil cut deal exceeded their promised cuts in December.
The group’s dedication to the cut has continued to improve balance the glut in the market, as oil prices reached a big bang $60 per barrel at the beginning of the year.
On Thursday, Brent crude futures hit $68.23 a barrel, up 39 cents or 0.9 percent.
A new survey obtained from Bloomberg citing data from oil companies and ship-tracking showed that the group pumped a combined 32.47 million barrels per day, an indication that all members maintained their cuts.
According to the survey, Libya’s production declined by 30, 000 barrels per day to 970, 000 a day following the pipeline blast, offset by an increase from Nigeria.
Both Nigeria and Libya are expected to join the cuts with a combined reduction of 2.8 million barrels per day.
Production in Saudi Arabia was down by 20, 000 barrels a day to 9.5 million a day, while Venezuela had a slip in production due to economic collapse and U.S sanctions, reducing output by 50, 000 barrels to 1.81 million barrels a day.
In all, the data showed that aside Nigeria and Libya which were exempted from the deal, other 12 OPEC members implemented a 121 percent output cut in December, same as in November.
