As Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries raise production in their campaign to stamp out competitors, oil refiners and sector-related exchange traded fund could benefit from the cheaper input costs.
OPEC members will meet on December 4 in Vienna where Iran is expected to announce plans to raise production by 500,000 barrels per day, further bolstering the group’s output, which has exceeded targest for 17 months, and exacerbating the global oil glut, Bloomberg reports.
The oil cartel has exceeded its output target of 30 million barrels per day since June 2014 as the group pumps record amounts of crude in an attempt to squeeze out high-cost competitors, such as the upstart U.S. shale oil industry.
The output target could rise further after the U.S. lifted sanctions on Iran over its nuclear energy program, clearing the way for Iranian oil to hit the markets.
However, with the expected increase in supply, the potentially cheaper oil prices could benefit refiners, which have been seeking cheaper sources of crude oil.
For instance, over the past three months, the Market Vectors Oil Refiners ETF (NYSEArca: CRAK), which tracks global oil refiners, rose 17.0%.
“This is probably the best time we’ve ever had as a buyer,” Kim Woo Kyung, a spokeswoman for SK Innovation Co., South Korea’s largest refiner, told Bloomberg. “We are enjoying an overflow of oil.”
Sk Energy Co makes up 5.3% of CRAK’s underlying holdings.