OPEC target gets harder as African members boost November output

VIENNA (Bloomberg) -- OPEC’s mission to implement last week’s historic deal to curb production for the first time in eight years just got a little bit harder after three of its African members increased output in November.

Crude production from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries rose to a record 34.16 MMbpd in November with gains led by Angola, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts, oil companies and ship-tracking data. That’s up from a revised 33.96 MMbopd in October.

Nigeria and Libya—which aren’t bound by the OPEC cuts because their output has suffered from sanctions and oil infrastructure sabotage—also boosted production by a combined 140,000 bpd last month.

Although OPEC uses independent estimates known as secondary sources that differ from the estimates of the Bloomberg survey, the resurgence in production from these two exempt African countries shows the other members will have to make deeper cuts to reach the group’s goal of 32.5 MMbopd.

OPEC will implement those cuts from Jan. 1 with the help of Russia, which has vowed to slash its own output by 300,000 bopd, the same as the combined reduction proposed for other non-OPEC nations. OPEC is holding talks with non-OPEC nations on Dec. 10 in Vienna to ink a deal.

Angola’s output increased by 170,000 bopd, with volumes rebounding following field maintenance in October. Iran’s output stayed relatively steady at 3.67 MMbopd while Saudi Arabia’s, OPEC’s de-facto leader, lowered its daily production by 50,000 bbl to 10.53 MMbopd.