OPEC Shipments Drop as ‘Spring Trough’ Nears, Oil Movements Says

OPEC will reduce crude shipments by 0.3 percent this month as demand nears its “spring trough,” according to tanker-tracker Oil Movements.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will export 23.27 million barrels a day in the four weeks to March 10, compared with 23.34 million in the period to Feb. 11, the Halifax, England-based researcher said today in an e-mailed report. The figures exclude Angola and Ecuador.

“Refinery turnaround is climbing and offline capacity is rising to its seasonal peak,” Roy Mason, Oil Movements’ founder, said by phone today. Crude demand will drop through mid-April or early May as refiners in the U.S. and Asia carry out maintenance at their plants, he said.

Exports from Middle Eastern producers, including non-OPEC members Oman and Yemen, will decrease 0.7 percent to 17.37 million barrels a day in the four-week period, according to the tracker.

Crude on board tankers will average 475.58 million barrels in the four weeks, up 2.2 percent from 465.54 million in the month to Feb. 11, Oil Movements said.

Oil Movements calculates shipments by tallying tanker- rental agreements. Its figures exclude crude held on board ships as floating storage.

OPEC’s members, which pump 40 percent of the world’s oil, are Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lananh Nguyen in London at lnguyen35@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss on sev@bloomberg.net