Opec’s oil export revenue to plunge 34% lower in 2016

Low crude prices and production outages have caused the group’s earnings to plummet

Opec's oil export revenue will fall to just $341bn this year, according to estimates from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). That's down from the $518.2bn the oil producer group reported in export earnings last year, which was a 46% drop from 2014 levels and the lowest in a decade. Opec said that in 2015 it posted a current account deficit of $99.6bn, compared with a surplus of $238.1bn in 2014. Last year was the first time the group had recorded a current account deficit since 1998, when the group was $19.46bn in the red. The EIA has estimated Opec's 2015 oil export revenue was much lower than the producer group has reported, at just $404bn. It's a 46% fall from the $753bn the