World has only 1.5 mln bpd in spare oil output-EIA

www.alertnet.org 06 Mar 2003 18:32

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - Spare world oil production capacity, excluding Iraq and Venezuela, may be as low as 1.5 million barrels a day (bpd), leaving little room for other countries to make up Iraq's lost oil exports if the United States were to attack the country, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Thursday.

OPEC is pumping at almost full production, with output averaging 24.5 million bpd in February, to offset the disruption in Venezuela's oil exports due to a workers strike and to get ready for the potential cutoff in Iraq's oil shipments in a war, the EIA said in its monthly energy outlook.

Even if the situation in Venezuela and Iraq are resolved without further oil disruptions, the additional pressure on commercial oil inventories of industrialized nations since early December will likely cause oil stocks to remain near the lower end of the 5-year average through most of 2003, EIA said.

"Months may also be needed to reach full Venezuelan production levels, resulting in new 5-year lows in (industrialized nations') commercial inventories in the second quarter," the agency said.