LONDON: OPEC's oil output in the first three months of 2018 has fallen by 425,000 barrels per day (bpd) from its 2017 average, a company which tracks OPEC supply forecast on Tuesday, indicating strong compliance with a pact to reduce production.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to cut output by about 1.2 million bpd as of January 2017 to reduce inventories and support prices. The pact has been extended until the end of 2018.
Supply from all 14 OPEC countries in the first three months of 2018 averaged 32.27 million bpd, tanker-tracking firm Petro-Logistics said in an email, down 425,000 bpd from OPEC's average daily supply for 2017 as a whole.
"OPEC-14 supply in the first quarter of 2018 declined to the lowest quarterly level since the production curtailment agreement came into effect some fifteen months ago," Petro-Logistics said.
Compliance with the deal has been high by OPEC standards, as a steep involuntary decline in Venezuela, where output is dropping amid economic crisis, has added to voluntary cutbacks by top producer Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies.
Petro-Logistics said that when compared with the same period last year, OPEC supply in the first quarter has fallen by 113,000 bpd.
Geneva-based Petro-Logistics is among a number of consultancies that estimate OPEC supply by tracking tanker shipments.
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