VOA标准英语2013--9月欧佩克产量下降（在线收听）

OPEC Production Falls in September 9月欧佩克产量下降

OPEC’s crude oil production fell below 30-million barrels a day in  September. That’s the first time that’s happened in more than two  years.

There are two main reasons for the drop in OPEC production. John  Kingston of Platts says one is a temporary problem, while the other is  ongoing and may be more troublesome.

“The temporary reason is that there was significant maintenance at  some of the Iraqi operations in that month and that’s coming back. And  we would expect Iraq production to get back toward its normal level.  The one that’s been a lot more troubling – and it wasn’t new to  September, though it seemed to pick up pace in September – are all the  problems going on in Libya.”

Kingston is global director of news for Platts, a major provider of  information about the energy, petrochemical, metals and agricultural  sectors. He said that Libya’s crude oil production has fallen because  of strikes and protests.

“After Ghadafi fell, the country’s production came back a lot faster  than a lot of people expected. You know, they were producing about 1.6 -million barrels a day prior to the Ghadafi fall and the (output) of  course dropped down to like not much more than zero – and then climbed  back smartly. But now these problems that have brought production down  below half a million barrels a day, they are a little bit more  intractable. And they’re not the kind of things that get fixed  overnight. So Libya is clearly an issue for the oil market,” he said.

And Libyan crude is not the type that’s easily replaced.

He said, “The Libyan crude is some of the best crude in the world –  some of the top quality. So to replace it on the market what you need  to do is you need to produce more of a lesser quality crude. So it’s  not a one for one. So this is clearly a source of some problems for the  industry.”

Kingston said Libya has used its geographic position in North Africa to  its advantage by supplying many refineries in southern France. Without  a strong central authority, he said, Libyan crude oil production may  remain up and down for a while.

“The kind of analogy is to look at Nigeria, which is always up and  down depending on the level of political tension and political strife  there. You get a couple of months where they get back up over two- million barrels a day and you think, OK, there we go. They’re on their  way. And then a few months later they’ve shaved another several  hundred thousand barrels a day of production off their output. So the  concern is that Libya will have these months where some fields will  come back, but then they can sink right back down,” he said.

The fall in Iraqi and Libyan output was offset somewhat by small  production increases in Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Nigeria, UAE  and Venezuela.

The Platts survey shows that Saudi Arabia, which has boosted output in  recent months, remained unchanged in September at 10 million barrels a  day.

Kingston said that OPEC’s production rises and falls depending on  world demand.

“Right now, almost everybody in that organization is producing full  out except for Saudi Arabia. Kuwait and the UAE have some fluctuation,  but it’s Saudi Arabia. And the Saudis in the last year or so have  fluctuated between a little over 9-million barrels a day and all the  way up to 10-million barrels a day. That’s quite a bit of movement in  just a year. So they’ve been stepping up to fill some of the gap that  has been left by the problems that Libya has had.” 

OPEC’s next scheduled meeting is December 4th in Vienna. It currently  has an official output ceiling of 30-million barrels a day.