London (Platts)--9Nov2012/650 am EST/1150 GMT

OPEC crude output edged up by 20,000 b/d to 31.17 million b/d in October from 31.15 million b/d in September, a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials and analysts showed Friday.

A drop of 50,000 b/d in Nigeria was more than offset by small increases in Angola, Iraq and Libya, the survey found.

Iranian volumes, which have dropped steadily in recent months as sanctions imposed by the US and EU took their toll on exports, were stable at 2.72 million b/d in October.

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OPEC's four Gulf Arab producers maintained volumes at levels similar to those of September, the survey found, while a further increase in exports took Iraqi output to 3.21 million b/d.

The 1.5 million b/d estimate of Libyan production, representing a 20,000 b/d increase from September, puts the country within 100,000 b/d of pre-uprising output.

The October total leaves OPEC exceeding its 30 million b/d output ceiling, agreed in December last year and extended in June, by more than 1 million b/d.

Ministers are scheduled to review the current production agreement at December 12 talks in Vienna. They have yet to give any indication of the likely outcome of the meeting.

OPEC published its annual World Oil Outlook on Thursday, in which it expects demand for its crude to remain flat over the next five years because higher non-OPEC liquids, including US shale oil, will take the lion's share of expected increases in world oil demand.



--Margaret McQuaile, margaret_mcquaile@platts.com
--Jacinta Moran, jacinta_moran@platts.com
--Kate Dourian, kate_dourian@platts.com
--Edited by Jonathan Dart, jonathan_dart@platts.com

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