Oil supply disruptions in Nigeria, Iraq and signs that United States shale oil output is shrinking contributed to the rise in oil prices in March, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said in a report.
The body said in its monthly report released recently that some support also came from a continued decline in gasoline (petrol) stocks, improvements in US jobs data and a weak dollar.
OPEC said in the report that crude oil futures surged around 20 percent in March which was the best month since November 2015 and that it was largely based on expectations of a supply intervention plan by major crude oil exporters.
Citing secondary sources the cartel said crude oil output among its member countries increased mostly from Iran, Iraq and Angola while production decreased in UAE, Libya and Nigeria.
The data showed that oil production in Nigeria decreased from 1.762m barrels per day (b/d) in February to 1.722 b/d in March.
Also, the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its Oil Market Report for April supported OPEC’s data, saying “OPEC crude oil production fell by 90 kb/d in March to 32.47 mb/d as ongoing outages in Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq more than offset a further increase from Iran and higher flows from Angola. Supply from Saudi Arabia dipped in March but held near 10.2 mb/d.”
