The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' (Opec) has pumped an average 29.57 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil in June, thus posting an increase of 530,000 bpd, according to a survey by Platts.

The jump was mainly because of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE which ramped up production, said the top global energy, petrochemicals and metals information provider in its monthly survey report.

Saudi Arabia boosted output by 450,000 bpd to 9.5 million bpd in June, accounting for the biggest single volume increase, it stated.

In May, the Opec production was 29.04 million bpd, the report added. But participants in the survey said that not all of the increment would be exported because of higher demand from the domestic power generation sector.

Despite the sizeable month-on-month increase, however, the June volume was lower than the 29.8 million b/d estimated for February, when the escalating unrest sweeping across Mena was beginning to affect Libyan production.

Increases totalling 760,000 bpd were partly offset by combined reductions of 230,000 bpd.

'These numbers show that Opec still has a lot of work to do, because the world's economy is going into a period where demand rises, and the loss of Libyan output makes meeting that demand problematic,' said John Kingston, director of news for Platts.

'What isn't certain is just how much of that hole will be filled by the release of oil from strategic stocks ordered by the International Energy Agency, and how much of the burden of supplying the market will be lifted from Opec because of that action,' Kingston noted.

Saudi production has been climbing in recent months in an attempt to compensate for lost volumes from Libya.

The Saudis even created two 'special' crude blends aimed at replicating the higher quality Libyan grades, although these failed to attract refiners, he added.-TradeArabia News Service