OPEC’s crude oil production remained largely unchanged from November in December, but that was mostly thanks to a 50,000-bpd decline in Venezuela’s production, as well as further cuts in Saudi Arabia, a Bloomberg survey of ship-tracking data, analyst opinions, and company information has suggested. At 32.47 million barrels daily, OPEC’s production is a hair below the 32.5-million-bpd ceiling it imposed on its members with the production cut agreement. But OPEC should hold off on patting itself on the back. While Saudi Arabia and Iran cut their production in December by 20,000 bpd each, Libya’s fell for reasons outside the control of the National Oil Corporation: a pipeline blast temporarily took off between 70,000 and 100,000 bpd off daily production. According to the survey data, Libya’s average daily production decline for the whole month was 30,000 bpd. Meanwhile, Nigeria raised its oil production by the same amount, effectively offsetting the […]