IEA - Non-Opec Production Increases 20% Lower Than Thought For 2007 - Reuters

[hatrack]

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil producers outside OPEC will pump less oil than expected this year, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday, increasing the burden on OPEC just as the exporter group is trimming supply.

In its latest monthly report, the adviser to 26 industrialised countries forecast oil supply from non-OPEC will rise by 1.4 million barrels per day in 2007, less than the 1.7 million bpd expected last month.

"Non-OPEC supply is adjusted down significantly for 2007," the IEA said. "Norway, Mexico, Canada, Cuba and Ecuador underpin the revision, the former two following government announcements of markedly lower expectations for 2007."

The lower forecast from non-OPEC coincides with supply cuts by members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to stem a drop in oil prices, which hit a 20-month low on Wednesday towards $50 a barrel.

EDIT

http://za.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2007-01-18T091320Z_01_BAN833188_RTRIDST_0_OZABS-OIL-IEA-20070118.XML

[GliderGuider]

1. I'm starting to lose track of the players here

Who's cutting production these days, who's raising, and why? There's as much smoke swirling around right now as there was in Kuwait in 1991.

Remember how KSA cut back production last summer because they couldn't find buyers?

All this misdirection, obfuscation and shifting of targets is enough to make a fella think Ken Deffeyes was right: oil did peak in December '05, and the producers are now doing everything they can to obscure that inconvenient truth.