A top Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries official said yesterday that the group was expected to increase its production capacity by 5.5 million barrels per day by the year 2009.
OPEC Secretary General Adnan Shihab-Eldin made the remarks at a meeting of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum on energy and mining in this southeastern city.
"Combined with a plan to increase production from OPEC from 32.5 million barrels a day to 38 million barrels a day by the year 2009 and an additional 1.5 million barrels a day of National Gas Liquids coming also from OPEC over the same period ... accumulative world oil production capacity [including non-OPEC countries] will rise by around 12 million barrels a day over that period," he said.
"This will be, in our opinion, above the expected cumulative rise in demand over that period which is estimated at to be around seven to eight million barrels a day ... This will be more than enough to cover the forecast growth in demand," he added.
OPEC said on Monday that its 11 members, which jointly supply more than a third of global oil, had produced 30.34 million bpd on average during last month, an increase of 130,000 bpd from August.
Noting a decline in production growth in non-OPEC countries, OPEC said these producers, led by Russia, would produce an average 50.3 million bpd this year, slightly less than a previous estimate of 50.4 million bpd.
Asked to comment on the outlook of oil prices, he said prices would moderate from the current high level.
"For the short term, I'm not seeing prices go below US$40 a barrel but I'm seeing prices could moderate below the current 70 or 60 level ... perhaps to go down to the 50s," he said.
"Where the prices will come under pressure is not from the supply [side] of crude .. they will come under pressure because of downstream problems and shortages," he said at a press conference.
Following his meeting with his South Korean host, Shihab-Eldin urged oil consuming countries to expand refining facilities quickly to fight high energy prices.
He stressed there is spare crude available to be turned into products.
He also brushed aside allegations that high oil prices are a main drain on the global economy.
"High oil has yet affected the economic growth," he said, noting the International Monetary Fund predicted a 4.3 percent growth for the world economy this year and four percent next year.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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