OPEC Spare Capacity May Stymie Oil's Rally: Chart of the Day

Crude oil prices, which have surged 60 percent this year, may not rise above $80 a barrel because spare production capacity among OPEC members has swollen.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows the relationship between crude oil futures traded in New York and excess output capacity of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries this decade. Prices climbed to a record $147.27 on July 11, 2008, when OPEC members had the ability to bring fewer than 3 million barrels of additional production online.
In March the 12-member group could have produced 6.84 million barrels a day above its actual production, if needed, the most since 2001, according to a monthly Bloomberg News survey of oil companies, producers and analysts. That margin was 6.11 million barrels last month.

“The numbers have gotten much larger over the past year,” said Rick Mueller, a director of oil markets at Energy Security Analysis Inc. in Wakefield, Massachusetts. “The Saudis alone probably have close to 3 million barrels excess capacity. The excess shows how effective OPEC’s been in managing the market.”

Bloomberg