Global oil supply dropped in March as US sanctions and power outages pushed Venezuela's crude output to a long-term low of 870,000 barrels per day (bpd), the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday, even lower than OPEC reported the day before, reports Reuters.
"The blackouts are an additional challenge for Venezuela's oil sector, already set back by economic collapse, corruption, mismanagement and - more recently - by US sanctions," the Paris-based IEA said in its monthly report.
The IEA, which coordinates the energy policies of industrialized nations, said the output decline of 270,000 bpd was Venezuela's second largest month-on-month drop and put the country's production at 600,000 bpd less than a year earlier.
Venezuela told the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that the nation pumped 960,000 bpd last month, a drop of almost 500,000 bpd from February, OPEC said on Wednesday.
OPEC, Russia and other non-member oil producers agreed to cut output by 1.2 million bpd from Jan. 1 for six months and are set to meet on June 25-26 to decide whether to extend the pact.
The IEA said the voluntary curbs of that deal and reduced output by Venezuela had caused OPEC production to fall 550,000 bpd in March.
The IEA also maintained its forecast of growth in global oil demand for 2019 at 1.4 mln bpd.
"Tightness in the oil market ... is not just a supply story. In recent months, the resilience of demand has received less attention," the IEA said.
Meanwhile, it said oil stocks in industrialized countries fell in February by 21.7 million barrels but remained above their five-year average.
Global refining throughput fell by 2.5 million bpd in March on unplanned outages, especially in the United States.
AFP from Paris adds: Saudi Arabia has slashed its oil production by more than promised as part of a pact to boost oil prices, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Thursday, while warning of mixed signals for global demand.
In its latest monthly oil market report, the Paris-based IEA said production by OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia dropped to its lowest level in two years in March after the cartel agreed to cuts with Russia and other ex-Soviet states.
However the IEA warned that demand fell in developed OECD countries by 0.3 million barrels per day (mbd) in the last three months of 2018 - "the first such fall for any quarter since the end of 2014".
OECD demand "is likely to have fallen again" in the first quarter of this year, it added, "due to weakness in some European economies, with perhaps more to come if there is a disorderly Brexit".
While demand in China, India and the United States grew, the OECD warned that "the oil market shows signs of tightening" amid "mixed signals" over the global economic outlook.
