OPEC production fell by 509 thousand barrels per day during the month of January 2020, which fell the average daily production of the organization to 28.859 million barrels compared to 29.368 million barrels in December 2019.
According to the Emirates News Agency, this is the highest monthly drop in the organization's production, which is preparing to hold an evaluation meeting in conjunction with the major independent producers during next March in Vienna to consider its decision to reduce production taken earlier last year.
OPEC + decided last December to increase its oil supply cuts by 500,000 barrels per day until March 2020, thereby raising the total daily reduction volume approved by the organization to 1.7 million barrels a day.
The organization's data on production activity indicates that the decrease recorded in January 2020 was the result of several factors, including what is related to developments in the spread of the Corona virus in China and the consequent decline in demand for this commodity from one of the most oil-consuming countries in the world, in addition to Geopolitical factors have affected the productivity of some of the organization's member states.
The prices of the OPEC oil basket decreased by 2.1%, by $ 1.38 a barrel, which reached $ 65.10 in January, according to data released by the organization.
The drop in OPEC oil basket prices came in January, following two months of continuous increases, as the price of a barrel reached 66.48 barrels in December 2019, while Brent fell from $ 66.9 a barrel to $ 63.38 a barrel during the same monitoring period.
It is noteworthy that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries OPEC expected in a previous report to increase the rate of global oil demand to the level of 100.98 million barrels per day during 2020 compared to 99.77 million barrels per day during 2019, but the geopolitical developments in the world and the emergence of the Corona virus may push the organization to recalculate its accounts during Next period.