Friday, May 18, 2012
SEOUL (Dow Jones)--Qatar is currently producing crude oil at full capacity and is sticking with its OPEC quota, Minister of Energy and Industry Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada said Friday.
Qatar currently has a combined output for oil and condensate of around 1.45 million to 1.5 million barrels a day, Al-Sada told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting in Seoul.
While he didn't break down the figures for oil and condensate production, he said Qatar's condensate output has been gradually increasing and is "almost now equivalent to crude oil."
Qatar plans to boost its condensate output in the coming years, during which it expects condensate output to exceed that of crude oil.
"We regard condensate as a crude oil," Al-Sada said.
Crude-oil output by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries continued to rise in April, according to a Dow Jones survey, as Iraq offset a decline in Iran's production to a 20-year low due to the Islamic Republic's oil sector being hit by a combination of sanctions targeting both its fields and exports.
Crude production from OPEC's 12 members was up by 115,000 barrels a day from March at 31.820 million barrels a day, although its official production ceiling is 30 million barrels a day, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey of industry sources and analysts.
-By Min-Jeong Lee, Dow Jones Newswires; 822-3700-1908; min-jeong.lee@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
18-05-12 0744GMT
