LONDON: OPEC’s income from oil and gas exports jumped 35 percent to more than $1 trillion last year as world oil prices hit record highs of almost $150 per barrel, the group said in its Annual Statistical Bulletin on Wednesday.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries saw the total value of its petroleum sales abroad reach almost $1,007 billion in 2008, up from $746 billion in 2007, which was itself a record.
Benchmark US crude oil futures started 2008 at just under $100 per barrel, rose to a peak of more than $147 in July and then retreated to around $40 by the end of the year, giving an average price for 2008 of around $99, up from $72 in 2007.
OPEC, which groups 12 countries following the departure of Indonesia at the end of 2008, pumps around a third of the world’s oil and straddles almost four fifths of the world’s proven crude oil reserves.
The increase in prices last year kept all of OPEC’s members in current account surpluses with a group current account balance of $467 billion for the year, up 28 percent.
The world’s biggest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, earned $283 billion from petroleum exports last year, up from $206 billion in 2007, the report showed.
The increase helped push up Saudi Arabia’s national output by more than a quarter as its gross domestic product (GDP) rose to $482 billion in 2008, from $381 billion in 2007.
OPEC’s total GDP increased to $2.88 trillion last year from $2.27 trillion in 2007.
The group’s proven crude oil reserves grew 7.9 percent last year to 1.027 trillion barrels from 952 billion in 2007 and 940 billion in 2006, the report said.
The rise was mainly due to a reassessment of the proven crude oil reserves in Venezuela, which saw its reserves rise to 172 billion barrels in 2008, from 99 billion in 2007.
OPEC’s natural gas reserves rose 2 percent to more than 93 trillion cubic meters. The biggest OPEC gas reserves are beneath Iran, which had 29.6 trillion cubic meters of proven natural gas reserves last year, up from 28.1 trillion in 2007.
The second biggest reserves are held by Qatar, which had around 25.5 trillion cubic meters last year. Analysts have questioned the size of reserves in Middle Eastern OPEC countries, but several producers have denied suggestions that their reserves have been exaggerated.
Meanwhile, world demand for OPEC’s oil may take years to recover from the slump in 2009 because of economic weakness and demand destruction, the group said on Wednesday, justifying its slower spending on new supplies.
In its 2009 World Oil Outlook, the OPEC said consumption of its crude would not return to 31 million barrels per day (bpd), the level it averaged in 2008, until 2013.
“We have this recession and the financial crisis going on so this has really affected demand,” OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah El-Badri told a news conference at the group’s Vienna headquarters.
“I hope this will bottom out in 2009,” he said, “and then the demand will pick up afterward.” The 12-member exporter group joins other forecasters, such as the International Energy Agency, in predicting lower long-term demand. OPEC also said it needed to spend less on developing new supplies, a prospect that may dismay oil consumers.
Oil hit a record high near $150 a barrel in July 2008, the day after OPEC issued its last report. It collapsed to $32.40 by December and is now trading around $62, boosted from its low in part by OPEC supply cuts agreed last year.
In its 277-page report, OPEC predicted world oil demand would rise much more slowly than previously expected over the medium and longer term, although supplies would also be lower.
By 2030, OPEC expects world consumption to reach 105.6 million bpd, a reduction of 7.7 million bpd — roughly equal to current demand in China, the second-largest oil consumer. In the medium term, consumption will fall to 84.2 million bpd this year from 85.6 million bpd last year, and rise to 87.9 million bpd by 2013. The 2013 figure is 5.7 million bpd less than previously expected.
“The high prices observed in 2008 led undoubtedly to some demand destruction, and this has been factored into short-term figures,” the report said.
This year’s “reference scenario” is based on the assumption the economy will have hit the bottom by the end of 2009 and begin to recover next year.
Growth would gain momentum in 2011 and by 2012 would be “back to trend values,” OPEC said.
Oil traded lower on Wednesday. US crude was down 95 cents at $61.98 as of 1359 GMT.