OPEC oil output reaches 7-year high

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC's) oil production in November reached a seven-year high amid an oil oversupply in the global market in 2015, a report by the cartel showed Thursday.

OPEC members pumped 31.7 million barrels of oil per day in November, keeping oil prices down in the past two years.

The cartel said it is expecting a sharp fall in crude supply from non-OPEC states in 2016, sticking to the strategy of defending its market share.

An OPEC meeting last week failed to set a new production ceiling. Its current ceiling of 30 million barrels per day has been virtually abandoned by members as they have been pumping over these levels in the past months.

OPEC said it wants to cooperate with other influential non-OPEC oil exporters such as Russia and the United States, over the balance of the world oil market.

Its report said world oil demand in 2016 is uncertain, "depending on the pace of economic growth, development of oil prices, and weather conditions, as well as the impact of substitution and energy policy changes."

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said OPEC's annual revenue may fall to 550 billion U.S. dollars from an average of more than 1 trillion U.S. dollars in the past five years.

Jamie Webster, senior director at IHS Energy, said OPEC is not yet ready to cut oil production. Meanwhile, oil output in the United States, a strong competitor of OPEC, could continue to decline in 2016 possibly causing oil prices to rise in the second half of that year, he stated. Endit