Major oil companies produced fewer barrels over the past six months than in the same period a year ago, despite crude prices rising to 10-year highs, the Wall Street Journal Europe reported.

09/26 02:11

Major Oil Companies' Production Fell in First Half, WSJ Says

By Dex McLuskey

London, Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Major oil companies produced fewer barrels over the past six months than in the same period a year ago, despite crude prices rising to 10-year highs, the Wall Street Journal Europe reported.

Exploration and production spend by the leading companies also fell in the first six months of 2000 over 1999, the paper reported. Spending by BP Amoco Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch/Shell Group fell 20 percent to $6.91 billion, it said, citing the Petroleum Finance Co., a Washington-based consulting group.

The world's richest nations continued to pressure Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to raise production. Last weekend, the Group of Seven leading industrial nations, meeting in Prague, urged the cartel to produce more, cheaper crude. OPEC has said it would increase production three times this year.

In the first six months of this year, crude oil production, including natural gas liquids, fell 0.7 percent to 13 million barrels a day, compared to the 1999 period. Analysts expect leading oil companies to increase exploration and production spend by 10 percent to 20 percent in coming months, the paper said.

The price of crude oil, which has virtually tripled in 1 1/2 years, reached a 10-year-high of $37.80 a barrel last week. (WSJ 9/26 p.1)

http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?ptitle=Bloomberg%20Energy&touch=1&T=energy_news_front.ht&s=AOdA_IhTHTWFqb3Ig

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), September 26, 2000

Answers

This here is one of the big stories of the year.

-- Buck (bigbuck@trailways.net), September 27, 2000.

I take it these are production figures for Europe. If so, the situation in this country is probably even worse, because we have some of oldest, least modernied refineries in the modernized world, due to strict environmental controls on expansion. After seeing this, maybe I don't even want to know how badly the U.S. is doing.

-- Billiver (billiver@aol.com), September 27, 2000.

Thanks, Carl....you really came up with a find of a story here. This explains clearly, I think, why the oil shortage is not an oil shortage per se, but a shortage of oil products for end use.

This is a critical differentiation for people to understand....sadly, I don't think many do.

-- R2D2 (r2d2@earthend.net), September 27, 2000.

How could these major oil companies let production fall by 20%, during the first six months of this year when prices were zooming upward?

This is really hard to understand.

-- QMan (qman@c-zone.net), September 27, 2000.

This story raises more questions than it answers...

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), September 27, 2000.