By David Hodari 

LONDON -- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries lowered its oil production growth forecast for non-cartel countries for 2020 on Thursday, citing a downward adjustment to its forecast for the U.S.

In its closely-scrutinized monthly oil market report, OPEC cut its 2020 non-OPEC production growth estimate by 34,000 barrels a day to 2.17 million barrels a day.

OPEC's cut was relatively small but the move chimes with recent remarks from OPEC secretary-general Mohammed Barkindo, in which he cited slowing growth in U.S. output as being part of the cartel's and its allies' considerations regarding ongoing production cuts. OPEC and its allies are due to meet next month in Vienna.

The downward adjustment to non-OPEC supply growth came "mainly due to the U.S., which was revised down by 33,000 barrels a day to now show growth of 1.5 million barrels a day for the year," OPEC said in its report.

The sharp rise of U.S. shale oil and gas has combined in recent months with sagging economic data and the continuing U.S.-China trade war to worry oil investors about the prospect of glutted inventories and falling demand.

Some of the uncertainties facing non-OPEC supply in 2020, OPEC said, were "a continuation of investment discipline by U.S. independent companies, pipeline constraints in Canada, [and] drilling and completion activity levels in the U.S.," although the U.S. is still expected to be by far the biggest driver of oil supply growth in the coming year.

The cartel's report left world economic growth forecasts and oil demand growth forecasts for 2019 and 2020 unchanged, after the cartel downgraded its 2019 demand estimate four times in the five months before November.

But, risk to oil prices remains "toward the downside, especially with underlying trade-related issue," OPEC added.

In addition, hedge funds and other money managers were more concerned about the outlook for crude oil prices in October than they were in September, OPEC said. Oil markets were rocked in September by attacks on crucial Saudi oil processing facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais knocking out 5% of global oil supply and prompting historic daily price rises.

Those gains quickly dissipated, though, and Saudi production swung higher in October, climbing by 1.174 million barrels a day, after plunging by 660,000 barrels a day the previous month.

Production changes for other OPEC nations were relatively small, with Ecuadorean and Iraqi production falling by 80,000 and 44,000 barrels a day respectively in October.

Ecuador reportedly halted crude sales in October due to mass protests interfering with operations at several oil fields. Iraq, which is facing its own protests, agreed to work harder to comply with previously agreed OPEC+ production cuts back at the cartel's September technical meeting.

Changes in supply from other members were small, although Congolese production rose by 61,000 barrels a day.

OPEC and its allies are due to meet next month, and while Brent crude is down 13% over the past six months, there has been no clear line from the producers in question as to whether they will move to deepen or extend cuts.

The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, has risen 3.4% so far in November and U.S. crude futures have climbed nearly 5%, with broader markets buoyed by cautious hopes that Washington and Beijing will soon sign a 'Phase One' trade deal.

On Thursday, Brent fell 0.1% to $62.28 a barrel on the Intercontinental Exchange and U.S. crude futures dropped 0.6% to $56.77 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The drops came after government inventory figures showed U.S. stockpiles rose more than expected during the week ended Nov. 8 and domestic supply hit a fresh record of 12.8 million barrels a day.

Elsewhere, OPEC cited the sanctioning of two subsidiaries of China's Cosco -- one of the largest shippers in the world -- as more than doubling dirty spot freight rates month-on-month in October.

Write to David Hodari at David.Hodari@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 14, 2019 15:20 ET (20:20 GMT)

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