§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will list in separate tables the production of leading Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries States and their estimated production potential; and whether there is anything to stop the cartel cutting supplies further as International Energy Agency member States reduced demand by 5 per cent.
§ Mr. GrayThe information on production is given below for the last month for which figures are available—April 1979. The figures are as published in "Petroleum Intelligence Weekly". Only OPEC members with production in excess of one million barrels per day—mbd—have been included; the figures have been rounded in some cases.
Crude oil production (mbd) Saudi Arabia1 8.79 Iran2 3.60 Iraq3 3.30 Kuwait1 2.55 Nigeria 2.42 Venezuela 2.39 Libya 2.05 Indonesia 1.61 Abu Dhabi UAE 1.34 Algeria3 1.22 NOTES: 1Including share of Neutral Zone. 2For the Iranian month ended 20 April. 3Estimated. There is considerable uncertainty regarding potential production capacity of oil producing countries. If all OPEC countries produced at the maximum sustainable rate, total OPEC production might be 2–6 mbd above its present level. The level of oil production in an individual OPEC country is a matter for the Government concerned, and I cannot speculate on the scope for cuts below these levels.