MEES SAYS SECOND WEEK MARCH OPEC OUTPUT 14 MLN BPD
OPEC produced only about 14 mln bpd of
oil in the second week of March -- 1.8 mln bpd below its
ceiling -- largely because of pipeline problems in Turkey and
Ecuador, the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) estimated.
    A landslide breached Iraq's one mln bpd pipeline through
Turkey on March 6 for a week, and earthquakes in Ecuador have
shut down its export pipeline for four to five months. Ecuador
has an OPEC quota of 210,000 bpd.
    MEES put Saudi Arabian output at 2.9 mln bpd in the first
week of March and 3.1 mln bpd in the second, in addition to
output from the Neutral Zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
    MEES said Saudi Arabia was pumping more than 300,000 bpd of
its total production into floating storage.
    Saudi Oil Minister Hisham Nazer told Reuters and the
television news agency Visnews yesterday that Saudi output,
including Neutral Zone production, was around three mln bpd.
    The Cyprus-based newsletter also said authoritative Libyan
oil sources said Libya was producing 850,000 bpd, compared with
its 948,000 bpd quota, and that actual liftings are much lower
than that.
    It said one major Libyan equity producer had partially
stopped lifting its 55,000 bpd equity entitlement for March
because Libya was insisting on official prices, but is still
lifting 40,000 bpd of debt crude at official prices and a
further 25,000 bpd of "purchase crude."
    It said small equity producers, with entitlements of only
2,000 to 3,000 bpd, had also told Tripoli they could not lift
at official prices.
    MEES said Iraq had sent a telex to OPEC and member
countries calling for the formation of a committee to study
what it said were inequalities in marketing potential among
various members.
    The newsletter said the Iraqi letter indicated Baghdad was
having difficulty selling crude at official prices.
    The Iraqi telex pointed out that some member countries
export substantial volumes of oil that are not subject to OPEC
price regulations -- exports of refined products, equity crude
on which the margins are equivalent to covert discounts and
"other forms of hydrocarbons" which are marketed in package deals
with crude oil.
 REUTER
