OPEC set for record profits in 2008, says US energy department
13 Aug 2008
The US Energy Department said yesterday that OPEC members have raked in a record $642 billion in oil exports revenue during the first seven months of 2008.
Increased production accompanied by incessantly rising oil prices that reached $140 per barrel in early July, will help oil exportering nations eclipse their last year's revenues, it said in a report.
According to estimates of the Energy Information Administration, the US agency that analyses facts and figures related to energy for the US administration, OPEC revenues will, in all probability, surpass $1 trillion by the end of this year and continue to look upwards in 2009.
Of OPEC's combined revenue $671 billion in 2007, Saudi Arabia netted the highest revenue at $194 billion in the seven months till end July, or 29 per cent of the total OPEC revenues.
High oil prices have also boosted the revenue and profits of the largest US and European oil companies Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell raking in $11.68 billion and $11.6 billion in quarterly profits respectively, overtakling their own best ever records. (See: Record oil prices send Exxon and Shell quarterly profits to record highs)
This high oil price has left several economies struggling to meet their huge fuel import bills, and rising inflation. In fact the New Zealand treasury had earlier this month declared its country in recession, the first European country to do so.
According to experts there is hope at the end of the tunnel where they expect the price of oil to come down to $90 a barrel as many capacity building projects were coming on stream in the US, Brazil, Russia and Azerbaijan which should significantly add to the global oil supply this year and next.
The projects from OPEC countries, like those in Saudi Arabia and Angola, would add significant quantities of light sweet crude in the supply markets.
