US report expects OPEC oil revenues to decline by 48% in 2015

Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, excluding Iran are expected to suffer a decline in oil export revenues by 48% in 2015 compared with 2014 when oil export revenues reached $380 billion, the Anadolu news agency reported.

In a report released on Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said that as a result of the much lower annual crude oil prices expected in 2015, oil export revenues are expected to decline; however, the report notes that OPEC revenues are expected to rebound in 2016 to $515 billion with the expected recovery in crude oil prices.

The report estimated that for 2014, excluding Iran, OPEC earned about $730 billion in net oil export revenues which represents an 11% decline from the $824 billion earned in 2013, largely because of the decline in average annual crude oil prices, and to a lesser extent from decreases in the amount of OPEC net oil exports.

The report explained that this was the lowest earnings for the group since 2010.

According to the report, oil prices have fallen by more than approximately 50% in the period from June 2014 until February 2015 and fell even more sharply following OPEC’s decision on 27 November to not change its production targets from previous levels.

The report said that Saudi Arabia had the largest share of oil exports revenues, $246 billion in 2014, representing approximately one third of total OPEC oil revenues.

According to the report, OPEC crude oil production and exports as a whole in 2015 are expected to remain unchanged from 2014 levels.

The report noted that in line with OPEC’s decision, Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer said that it intends to maintain its export market share rather than cut production to keep prices higher. It also pointed out that in the past, Saudi Arabia often played the role of the swing producer, temporarily cutting its production to offset supply growth elsewhere or weaker global demand, or increasing its output level to make up for a supply shortfall.

The agency said that for 2014, oil export revenues in Saudi Arabia reached about $246 billion, while it reached $81 billion in Kuwait, $87 billion in Iraq, $77 billion in Nigeria, $58 billion in Venezuela, $48 billion in Algeria, $53 billion in UAE, $ 38 billion in Qatar, $9 billion in Libya, $24 billion in Angola and $10 billion for Ecuador.