ND: OPEC Posts Record Oil Exports at $1 Trillion in 2011
OPEC recorded its highest oil-exports revenue ever last year, earning a staggering 1 trillion dollars for the first time, the group's data showed Monday.
The move underscores how turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, while pushing budgetary needs upward, has also vastly filled its members' coffers.
In its annual report for 2011, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries says its members recorded $1,038.9 billion in petroleum exports--which include crude oil and natural-gas liquids--up 39%.
The number is close to the annual gross domestic product of large economies like South Korea, according to data from the International Monetary Fund.
The previous record had been in 2008 when OPEC--the world's largest crude-producers' group--had earned $980 million from oil exports.
The staggering number came despite an only slight increase in crude oil production, up 2% at 29.8 million barrels a day last year. But the average price of the barrels sold by its members was up 39%.
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