Saudi Said To Have Cut Production In December

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January 16, 2013: BP: North America Shale Boom Will Pressure OPEC to Cut Output

Increasing output of shale oil in North America will put pressure on OPEC to cut its own crude production, resulting in a global oil supply buffer on a scale not seen since oil prices were far lower more than 10 years ago, BP PLC said in its annual energy forecast Wednesday.

BP's forecasts illustrate the extent to which the North American boom, first in shale gas production and now in shale oil, has redrawn the global energy map. However, the company doesn't expect the shale revolution to spread by 2030 on any great scale to Asia or Europe, where conditions for investment in unconventional oil and gas fall short of those in North America, BP said.

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Link here to Rigzone.com.

It was probably all over the news but I missed it until seeing it in Rigzone.

Crude-oil futures prices climbed to a 16-week high Thursday on news that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, cut production in December.

Analysts said the reduction likely came in response to weak near-term demand. But, if sustained in coming months, the reduction could offset somewhat the impact of rising U.S. oil output that is expected to help trim global prices this year.

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, and the de facto leader of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, cut output by 5% in December from a month earlier to 9.025 million barrels a day, a person familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires. The drop was the largest percentage cut by the Saudis since January 2009, as the recession took hold and U.S. benchmark oil prices collapsed to $42 a barrel from a record monthly average high of $134 a barrel in June 2008.

The cut put Saudi output at its lowest level since May 2011, prior to an increase to cover lost supplies from the Libyan civil war. The Saudis boosted output to 10.1 million barrels a day last spring to cover lower exports from Iran as stricter sanctions took hold.