OPEC Pumps Least Crude in More Than 2 Years as Saudi Cuts

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OPEC reduced crude production in November to the lowest level in more than two years as output dropped below the organization’s 30 million barrel-a-day ceiling for a third month.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries pumped 29.63 million barrels last month compared with 29.83 million in October, OPEC said in its monthly oil market report today, citing data from secondary sources. That’s the lowest since May 2011. The group decided to maintain its output limit of 30 million at a meeting in Vienna last week because members were “all satisfied,” Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia ’s oil minister, told reporters on Dec. 4.

“In taking this decision, member countries reconfirmed their readiness to promptly respond to unforeseen developments that could have an adverse impact on an orderly and balanced oil market,” OPEC said in today’s report.

Analysts at banks including BNP Paribas SA, Citigroup Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG predict that some members of OPEC, notably Saudi Arabia, will probably need to reduce output in 2014 to prevent a global glut. The U.S. is producing the most oil in a quarter-century, while Iraq , Libya and Iran have said they plan to increase exports in the next several months.

Libyan Ports Today’s OPEC report was published before the head of Libya’s Petroleum Facilities Guard, Brigadier Idris Bukhamada, said that three oil ports in eastern Libya will reopen on Dec. 15. The Al Magharba tribe, which held a meeting today, forced former PFG leaders to lift their blockade, Bukhamada said by phone from Ajdabiya. The ports, including Es Sider, the largest, had been closed since late July.

Output from Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s biggest produc

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Thread: OPEC to cut Oil production by 500,000 barrels a day.....last time they did was fall of 2008 ..ARE THEY EXPECTING A CRASH IN DEMAND AGAIN