The US government has predicted that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) could see oil receipts rocket by 32 percent in 2010 to $752bn, wiping out nearly all the decreases member nations saw last year.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA), a division of the US Department of Energy, also said in its monthly outlook report that the cartel’s oil revenues could rise to $821bn in 2011, a further rise of nine percent.
Last year, Saudi Arabia – by far the largest member of OPEC – earned $153bn from oil last year, representing around 27 percent of the cartel’s total revenues.
Behind Saudi Arabia came the UAE and Iran, both of whom saw oil revenue of $53bn. Nigeria posted revenue of $46bn, while Kuwait hit $45bn. Qatar was the last-placed of the four OPEC GCC members, picking up $24bn from oil.
In the first six months of this year, in nominal terms, the EIA said that Saudi Arabia had already earned $116bn from oil revenues, with Iran on $41bn, the UAE on $38bn, Kuwait with $33bn and Qatar with $20bn.
The increased earnings were due to the recovering oil price, which returned back to a permanent position above the $70 mark during that period.
Saudi Arabia saw its oil-related income rise by 64 percent in the first half, thanks to the oil price hike.
The UAE similarly saw its revenues improve by 57 percent. Kuwaiti revenues rose by 45 percent, while Qatar saw a 70 percent increase.
On average, OPEC net oil export earnings reached $1,547 per head last year.
Last week, OPEC bolstered its outlook for 2010 and 2011 by 140,000 barrels a day each in its monthly report. Worldwide crude oil use will increase by 1.05 million barrels a day, or 1.2 percent, next year to average 86.56 million a day, the organisation’s Vienna-based secretariat said.
In the report, OPEC said that “global economic recovery is projected to continue through the whole of 2011 with an even distribution between the first and second half of the year.”
OPEC’s 12 members are Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Venezuela.
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