The Oil Drum

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2007 Net Change: -264kb/d

Here then is a chart-fest for all of you, showing the balance between countries who expanded their production compared to the previous year and those whose production declined. It's pretty self explanatory, but note the difference between the strong growth years around 2004 and the very slight decline experienced in the last two years when the scales have been nearly 'balanced'.

Perhaps to counter the less glowing report on long-term production that we discussed last week, it may be interesting to note how the Saudi Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Ali Naimi outlined them at the recent meeting in South Africa.  The report comes from Petroleumworld which, interestingly, makes a statement at the end of the article that it does not necessarily share the minister's views.  However, when we put this against some of the numbers from the EIA further down the piece, you will see that perhaps it is wise to be a little concerned.  (Although production numbers often increase a bit when they are finally reconciled with reality, rather than an estimate).