OPEC to Cut Crude Shipments by 1%, Oil Movements Says

Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) -- OPEC will cut daily shipments of crude oil by 1 percent in the four weeks to Jan. 17 as the group enacts supply reductions announced in the past four months, according to industry consultant Oil Movements.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, producer of more than 40 percent of the world’s oil, will load 23.75 million barrels a day in the four-week period, down from 24 million in the four weeks to Dec. 20, Oil Movements said.

OPEC last month announced a record supply cut of 14 percent after curbs agreed on in September and October failed to stop prices falling among a worldwide decrease in demand. The group has implemented about half of the cuts it pledged in September and October, according to Oil Movements.

“OPEC are baring their fangs but the market is still skeptical,” Oil Movements founder Roy Mason said in a telephone interview from Halifax, England. “They’re still well short of the targets announced earlier this year, and nowhere near the ones announced in December.”

Shipments from the Middle East will decline 1.2 percent to 16.96 million barrels a day in the period to Jan. 17, Oil Movements said.

A total of 419.34 million barrels of crude will be on board tankers on Jan. 17, a decline of 8.9 percent from the month before, when 460.14 million barrels were being shipped.

Oil Movements combines reports from shipbrokers on tanker rentals with its own mathematical models to calculate how much crude is being shipped.

OPEC has completed about 1.2 million barrels a day of the 2-million barrel a day in supply cuts announced in September and October, Mason said. It has yet to begin the additional 2.2- million barrel a day reduction agreed on Dec. 17 in Algeria, he said.