Profits from OPEC oil exports last year recorded the highest level in a decade

Last year, oil export revenues from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose to their highest levels in nearly a decade, as Russia's war on Ukraine boosted prices and major member states raised their output.

Thirteen OPEC countries earned $873.6 billion in 2022 from oil export revenues, an increase of 54% over the previous year, according to the organization's report. This is the best year for it since 2014, when the shale oil boom in the United States of America halted a period of the historic rise in oil prices.

The price of crude oil rose last year after the disruption of energy flows from Russia, which joined the OPEC + alliance that brings together the countries of the organization with producers from outside it, amid the strong international reaction against its war in Ukraine. The price of Brent crude futures averaged nearly $99 a barrel last year, which is the highest level since 2014.

increase production

Meanwhile, OPEC member countries, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, boosted their production to meet the recovery in fuel demand after the end of the Corona epidemic. The coupling of the price increase with production growth lifted the group's profits as a whole.

Usually, the average price of the OPEC basket of oil exceeded $100 per barrel slightly during 2022. Bloomberg estimates indicate that crude production from its 13 member states recorded approximately 29.2 million barrels per day. Oil revenue figures also include sales of refined products.

Bloomberg: Buyers are seeking less Saudi oil after the price hike

OPEC profits reached a peak of nearly $1.2 trillion in 2012, coinciding with the flow of shale oil from various US states from Texas to North Dakota thanks to the use of hydraulic fracturing technology, also known as fracking. The market crash later prompted Saudi Arabia and Russia, previously fierce rivals, to form the OPEC+ alliance in 2016.

Revenue comparisons between this period and the present time are somewhat complicated by changes in OPEC membership. Countries including Qatar and Ecuador withdrew from the group, while other countries such as Equatorial Guinea and Gabon joined.