Platts – Oil production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) edged up by 20,000 barrels per day (b/d) to 29.72 million b/d in December from 29.7 million b/d in November as increases from Saudi Arabia, Iran and Nigeria more than offset a drop in Iraqi volumes, a just-released Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials and analysts showed.

“It’s Goldilocks time – not too hot, not too cold -- for the oil market,” said John Kingston, global director of news for Platts, a leading global provider of energy, petrochemicals and metals information. “OPEC production, which some feared would blast through all predictions of what the group needed to produce, is hanging around a level that won’t tank the market and won’t let prices soar on the world’s various disruptions.”

Furthermore, said Kingston, “Prices are at a level which is keeping producers relatively happy, and consuming nations are able to bear these costs without significant harm to their economics. In the United States, the consumer is happy enough with these price levels, such that bigger cars are making a comeback. For both buyer and seller, everything seems just right.”

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