U.S. says fuel shortage will grow without Iran

The U.S. Energy Department has said excluding Iran from the global oil market would increase the shortfall between worldwide supply and demand based on September and October production and consumption estimates, the Daily Star reported.
Global fuel use averaged 2.4 million barrels a day more than output over the two months when Iran is excluded from the calculations, and 600,000 barrels less than production when Iran is included, the department’s Energy Information Administration said in a report Saturday.

Saturday’s report was the fifth assessment issued under a Dec. 31 law that requires the EIA to provide an update on oil market conditions every 60 days.

OPEC spare oil production capacity dropped 26 percent in September and October compared with same period a year earlier, the report showed. The 12 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries had an average 2 million barrels a day spare capacity during the two months, down from 2.7 million in 2011.

Iran, the third-biggest oil producer in OPEC, pumped 2.85 million barrels of oil a day last month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. August production dropped to 2.75 million barrels a day, the lowest level since February 1990.