OPEC gets a $73-billion bonanza from oil spike

Mumbai: Member countries of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) received an extra $73 billion with the record rise in the prices of crude oil and are expected to record oil revenues of $1.251 trillion this year, the US Energy Information Administration said in its new monthly forecast.

The agency, which projected an 86 per cent jump in OPEC's net oil export earnings from $671 billion in 2007, expected a further six per cent rise in the cartel's oil revenues to $1.322 trillion in 2009.

OPEC members raised $645 billion from oil exports during the first half of 2008. Crude prices hit a record $145 a barrel last week.

Saudi Arabia, with $192 billion in oil revenues, accounted for almost one-third of that total, just $2 billion less than the kingdom's total oil export revenues in 2007, EIA said.

Iraq's earning until June this year touched $39 billion, $1 billion more than the country's total oil earnings last year.
 
The price of OPEC crude oil dropped more than $3 on Tuesday and stood at $135.21, against $138.44 the previous day, according to data released by OPEC.

Crude oil fell more than $5 to $136.04 per barrel in New York on Tuesday.

OPEC oil price is an average basket price based on 13 important brands produced by cartel members.