Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 19 / Trend A.Badalova /
Oil exports from the Arab Gulf fell significantly in January, 2013 with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE combined dropping another 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) after falling 350,000 bpd in December, 2012, the US energy research and development firm ESAI (Energy Security Analysis) said in its report.
The report said that estimates of crude and condensate exports for Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE from Energy trading data have fallen by almost 1.5 million bpd since September, 2012.
"A decline of almost 600,000 bpd in January follows a decline of roughly 350,000 bpd in December, reinforcing the view that the Gulf OPEC countries are making an effort to rein in production in a fundamentally well-supplied global oil market," the report said.
Most of the decline, according to the ESAI, has been from Saudi Arabia with exports down 200,000 bpd in December and more than 500,000 bpd in January.
According to the report, domestic stocking prevented the decline in production from being as large as the decline in exports. These data indicate that OPEC production continues to trend down, ESAI said.
According to the ESAI's forecasts, Saidi Arabia's crude and condensate export will amount to 6.525 million bpd in February, while the country's oil production will hit 8.817 million bpd.
ESAI predicts UAE's crude and condensate export to amount to 2.623 million bpd this month with oil production at 2.821 million bpd.