Depleting Majors  

Chris Vernon at Vital Trivia has collected some numbers on oil production for the 4 majors - all of which except BP have declining production, which would reinforce the view that non OPEC production is in decline.

Chevron, which launched the initial takeover bid for Unocal in April, reported a 6% decline in second-quarter production and an 11% drop in 2004.

Exxon Mobil: Profits from exploration and production jumped $1 billion to $4.9 billion, a reflection of strong crude and natural gas prices offsetting a 4.3 percent reduction in output, the company said.

Shell’s oil and gas production, including oil sands, averaged 3.53 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in the second quarter, a 1 percent decline from 3.58 million barrels a day a year earlier.

BP buck the above trend with an increase in their extraction though.

BP Plc, said oil and gas production rose 3.5 percent in the second quarter… Second-quarter production averaged 4.11 million barrels a day, compared with the 3.97 million barrels a day reported for the year- earlier period.

This increase at BP doesn’t necessarily represent new drilling, new projects or new discoveries though. It more likely represents the fact that BP have bought or increased their shareholding in other smaller companies allowing BP to claim existing extraction this year that they couldn’t last year.