London, Sept 6: Opec oil producers in August jacked output to a level not seen for nearly 20 years and still failed to contain runaway crude prices, a Reuters survey found.Supply from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries rose by 670,000 barrels a day to 29.04 million bpd, the survey of OPEC and industry officials, consultants and tanker trackers estimated.
The extra oil came mainly from Iraq, now nearing the volumes it pumped before the Gulf War, and leakage from Saudi Arabia.
OPEC is under heavy pressure from consumer nations to lift official output quotas for a third time this year and reverse a rally that has catapulted crude to a 10-year high of $33 a barrel.
Ministers meet in Vienna on Sunday to decide winter production limits and are expected to debate an output increase of at least 500,000 bpd.
The survey showed that production for the 10 in OPEC that have quotas, excluding Iraq, was measured at 26.12 million, or 720,000 bpd in excess of the official 25.4 million limit.
The producer group already is supplying more than a previous peak seen in March 1998, when a glut sent prices crashing into single digits.World economic growth since has fuelled petroleum demand and non-OPEC supply, hurt by the price slump, has been slow to recover after remaining static last year.
Cartel production last was at 29 million bpd in early 1981, in the wake of the second oil shock, after the 1979 Iranian revolution.
The bulk of August's extra supply came from Iraq as Baghdad lifted volumes back near capacity under its humanitarian exchange with the United Nations.Iraq, with no output quota, raised supply by 430,000 bpd to 2.92 million after a slow month in July.
Monitors said Saudi Arabia lifted production by 160,000 bpd to 8.60 million.That means Riyadh is pumping about 350,000 bpd in excess of its official quota.
Saudi, the only OPEC member with significant spare capacity, said in July that it was planning to boost volumes by 500,000 bpd. But the kingdom has found difficulty placing the crude with refiners preferring to keep inventories low rather than pay such high prices.
The rest of OPEC, pumping at or near capacity, managed only 80,000 bpd extra between them - mainly from Nigeria.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.