China’s Oil Production Drop Helps OPEC Cut Global Supply lweb.es/f2609 01.17.2017
China’s production is forecast to fall by as much as 7 percent this year, extending a record decline in 2016. This is about the same size as the recent output cut agreed by OPEC member Iraq. China’s output slumped in 2016 as state-owned firms shut wells at mature fields that had become too costly to operate after the crash. Crude production fell 6.9 percent in the first 11 months of 2016 to about 4 million barrels a day, the first decline since 2009 and the biggest in data going back to 1990.
OEF REVIEW:Iraq was the second-leading contributor to the growth in global oil supply in 2015, behind only the United States. Crude oil production in Iraq, including fields in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq, averaged 4.0 million barrels per day in 2015, almost 700,000 barrels per day above the 2014 level. Iraq is the second-largest oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and accounted for about 75% of total OPEC production growth in 2015.