Editing OPEC (section)

===Spare capacity===
The [[Energy Information Administration|US Energy Information Administration]], the statistical arm of the [[US Department of Energy]], defines spare capacity for crude oil market management "as the volume of production that can be brought on within 30 days and sustained for at least 90 days&nbsp;... OPEC spare capacity provides an indicator of the world oil market's ability to respond to potential crises that reduce oil supplies."<ref name="EIA_2014" />

In November 2014, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated that OPEC's "effective" spare capacity, adjusted for ongoing disruptions in countries like Libya and Nigeria, was {{convert|3.5|Moilbbl/d|m3/d}} and that this number would increase to a peak in 2017 of {{convert|4.6|Moilbbl/d|m3/d}}.<ref>{{cite journal |title='Effective' OPEC Spare Capacity: Reality-Based Data |url=http://www.iea.org/media/ieajournal/Issue7_WEB.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160502040956/http://www.iea.org/media/ieajournal/Issue7_WEB.pdf |journal=IEA Energy |issue=7 |page=13 |date=November 2014 |archive-date=2 May 2016}}</ref> By November 2015, the IEA changed its assessment{{quantify|date=March 2020}} "with OPEC's spare production buffer stretched thin, as Saudi Arabia – which holds the lion's share of excess capacity – and its [Persian] Gulf neighbours pump at near-record rates."<ref>{{cite journal |title=3 billion barrel cushion |journal=Oil Market Report |url=https://www.iea.org/oilmarketreport/reports/2015/1115/ |date=13 November 2015 |access-date=15 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222164633/https://www.iea.org/oilmarketreport/reports/2015/1115/ |archive-date=22 December 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref>