A new Reuters survey found that OPEC’s output dropped in October due to production disruptions in Iraq as well as increased compliance to established quotas by the rest of the bloc’s countries. Total production fell by 80,000 barrels per day this month as compliance rose to 92 percent – up four points from September. Saudi Arabia continued its trend to pump below target, and Venezuelan output fell further as the nation’s economy spirals into a depression. Brent barrels rose to over $60 a barrel, which is the price that Saudi Aramco executives were aiming to reach before the state-run company’s initial public offering next year. Following the Kurdistan region’s referendum which Iraq did not recognize, Iraq’s government forces completed in mid-October an operation to seize control of all oil fields that Iraqi state-held North Oil Company operates in the oil-rich Kirkuk region from Kurdish forces. Crude oil from northern […]