The Oil Drum

The news is official — Enlarged Opec aims for high crude prices.

At a gathering in Abuja on Thursday [December 14], ministers from the 11 member countries opted to cut their production by another 500,000 barrels per day from February and accepted African producer Angola as a new member from January 1.

More details will follow below the fold but let us set the correct tone at the start.

"What did we do before?" he asked rhetorically,
alluding to the move to ramp up output in 2004 after the
aborted cut. "People don't know the trouble we go to, to
balance the market," Mr. [Ali al-] Naimi said. "Without us,
the oil market would be chaotic."
From OPEC's Cut Aims to Prop Up Prices.

Now that Christmas has come early, let's examine what's going on in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

[editor's note, by Prof. Goose] This is a guest post by lads.

This article is a first simplistic (but comprehensive) assessment of World Oil Exports, here defined has the total amount of liquid hydrocarbons that are surpluses in producing countries. This assessment is made by projecting in to the future fixed change rates that reflect current trends in liquids production and consumption in countries where presently the difference between the two is positive. The outcome of this assessment is worrisome.