MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

OPEC oil earnings expected to reach 1.25 trillion USD

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries earnings from oil exports are expected to reach a record 1.251 trillion US dollars this year, about 73 billion more than previously estimated, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Net oil export earnings from OPEC are projected to jump 86% this year from 671 billion in 2007 and then rise 6% to 1.322 trillion US dollars in 2009, said the EIA in its new monthly forecast. OPEC members have been raking in the cash from soaring crude prices, which hit a record 145 US dollars a barrel last week and above 141 this week.. During the first half of 2008 OPEC members raised 645 billion from oil exports. Saudi Arabia accounted for almost one-third of that total, bringing in 192 billion, just two billion US dollars less than the kingdom's total oil export revenues in 2007, according to the EIA. Iraq's oil earnings reached 39 billion through June of this year, already one billion more than the country's total oil earnings last year.