The Guardian Reports;
THE threat of shale oil on conventional crude oil production may have become real afterall.
Reason: A report from the United
States Energy Information Administration (EIA) has projected dwindling fortunes for oil producing countries, courtesy of the rising profile of the North American country’s shale oil production.
To be affected by the report’s assessment are the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which could have its gross output decimated by O.5 million barrels per day (mbd) this year.
Already, the U.S shale oil boom has put European refineries out of business and undercut West African crude suppliers, with domestic drillers threatening to roil Asian markets and challenge producers in the Middle East and South America.
Meanwhile, crude oil exports in Nigeria, declined at a slower pace in the second quarter of last year, compared with the previous three months.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, crude shipments fell 11 per cent to N2.7 trillion ($16.6 billion) last quarter, after dropping 26 percent in the first three months of the year.
The EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook, released yesterday, stated that
OPEC members, led by Saudi Arabia, are expected to reduce production to accommodate the non-OPEC supply growth in 2014.
EIA predicts OPEC oil production at 29.49 mbd in 2014 compared to 29.96 mbd in 2013.
In 2015, EIA expects OPEC oil production to slightly increase to 29.51 mbd.
“Although overall OPEC production in 2015 is forecast to remain close to its 2014 level, some key member countries continue to reduce their output to accommodate assumed recovery from production outages in Libya and growing production from other OPEC member countries, notably Iraq and Angola,” EIA said in its report.
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