OPEC pumps more oil in July despite cut pledge: IEA

Paris, France | AFP | OPEC pumped more oil in July as global oil supplies rose for the third straight month, the IEA said Friday, giving figures that cast further doubt on the cartel’s pledge to cut output to raise prices.

In its monthly report on the global oil market, the International Energy Agency said, however, that it believes the supply glut is easing, partly because demand is growing faster.

“There would be more confidence that re-balancing is here to stay if some producers party to the output agreements were not… showing signs of weakening their resolve,” the IEA said.

OPEC and a number of other producers including Russia agreed late last year to cut production to ease oversupply and support the price of crude. In May they extended those cuts into 2018.

However the effort has been undermined by a number of countries failing to honour their pledges to reduce output.

“The compliance rate with OPEC’s output cut fell again in July to a new low of 75 percent from June’s revised figure of 77 percent,” said the IEA.

For the non-OPEC countries that joined the pact, the compliance rate edged up to 67 percent, the IEA said.

It found that the 22 countries bound by the pact are producing about 470,000 barrels per day in excess of their commitment, while global output was around 500,000 barrels higher in July than one year ago.

– ‘Convince the market’ –

“If re-balancing is to be maintained, the producers that are committed to seeing the task through to March 2018 need to convince the market that they are in it together,” said the IEA.