By Jenny Cosgrave, Staff Writer
The rise of North American oil supplies could test the future of OPEC which may have to curb supply to accommodate rising shale oil volumes, a new report has found.
The increase in U.S. output is a “defining feature of tomorrow’s market” according to International Energy Agency’s oil market report and could test the producer group’s share of the global oil market.
“The producer group, ineluctably faces the test of having to rein in supply and accommodate rising volumes of shale oil – unless falling prices curb shale oil production first,” the report found.
Non‐OPEC supplies rose by 570,000 barrels per day in July to 54.9 million barrels a day, with North America providing around 40 percent of the growth, said the IEA, with Canada rather than the U.S. responsible for most of this increase.
However, OPEC’s imminent challenge is less future demand issues and more practical difficulties in bringing production to market, the IEA said, as domestic developments in member countries continue to cause production strife.
OPEC crude oil supplies edged lower in July, down 165,000 barrels a day to 30.41 million barrels due to continued supply disruptions in Libya and despite higher Saudi output.
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