The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has issued its 53rd Annual Statistical Bulletin (ASB) and announced that exports of crude oil from its member countries averaged 24.86 mb/d in 2017, posting a 1.6% decline on 2016. The bulk of the production from OPEC countries was shipped to the Asia and Pacific region (63% of the total). Besides, shipments of crude oil to Europe also increased from 4.4 mb/d to 4.64 mb/d in 2017. However, exports to North America decreased by 82,000 bbl/d (-2.5%).
The global crude oil production decreased by 701 kb/d (-0.9%) to 74.69 mb/d, which marks the first decline in output since 2009. This was due to a 2.8% decrease in crude oil output from OPEC member countries (-926 kb/d). The global oil reserves dropped by 0.4% to 1,483 Gboe, while the global natural gas reserves rose by 0.2% to 199.4 tcm.
According to the OPEC, the global oil demand stood at 97.2 mb/d in 2017 (+1.7%), with the largest growth taking place in the Asian Pacific region (India and China in particular). The global refining capacity averaged 96.93 mb/d in 2017 (+104 kb/d) thanks to additions in the Asia and Pacific region again.