OPEC reports soaring Venezuelan production by 2.8%

In April, in terms of volume of production, Venezuela ranked sixth among the 12 Member States of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), according to the month report of the oil cartel.

The extraction report, based on third-party sources, (such as rating or auditing agencies of the oil market), points out that in April, Venezuela produced 2.37 million barrels per day (bpd). This represents an increase of 2.8% in comparison to April 2011, when the oil extraction stood at 2.31 million barrels. In April, 5,000 additional barrels were drilled compared with March 2012, according to the month to month comparison.

The result of April places Venezuela after OPEC's first five oil producing countries: Saudi Arabia (9.89 million bpd), Iran (3.1 million bpd), Iraq (3.02 million bpd), Kuwait (2.75 million bpd), and the United Arab Emirates (with 2.59 million bpd).

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Since the monthly report of April, the OPEC decided to include the production statistics supplied by individual Member States.

These data - which are incomplete, because not every country has so far specified its output in April - highlights that Venezuela recorded a production of 2.83 million bpd of crude oil in that month. The same information shows that crude oil production in Venezuela during the first quarter averaged 2.79 million bpd.

The remarkable difference between the reports of secondary sources and the information provided by the Venezuelan government (469,000 bpd), is supported by the consideration of extra heavy and upgraded crude oils, referred as synthetic crude oils by several agencies in the oil market. However, Venezuela reports them to the OPEC as conventional crude oils.

Minister of Petroleum Rafael Ramírez stated that the OPEC approved changes in its definition of crude oil a year ago, which would lead to a turnover of the production numbers.

However, Venezuela is not the only producer with discrepancies between its numbers and the secondary sources. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait or United Arab Emirates produce results of more than 100,000 barrels of difference regarding the crude oil production.

Translated by Karen Daza