The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will reduce crude shipments by 1.2 percent this month as the global recovery slows and refiners in the US and Europe finish maintenance, Oil Movements said, the ninth weekly decline reported by the tanker tracker. OPEC, which supplies about 40 percent of the world's crude oil, will ship 23.2 million barrels a day in the four weeks to Oct. 2, down from 23.47 million barrels a day in the month to Sept. 4, the Halifax, England based consultant said today in a report. The data exclude Ecuador and Angola. In a phone interview with Reuters from Halifax, England0, Roy Mason, Oil Movements founder, said: “September is the low point of the year. The decline in September from the Gulf is to the west. There's a consensus that growth will slow towards the end of the year.” Operating rates at refineries in the US slipped to 87.6 percent of capacity in the week to Sept 9, from 88.2 percent the previous week.
