Global Oil Production Hampered By Outages - WCTI12.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- All the attention may be on a loss of oil from Iran these days, but production outages in a variety of spots worldwide is causing about one million barrels of oil a day to sit on the sidelines, helping push oil and gas prices to near record highs.In places like South Sudan, Yemen and Syria the oil is offline due to violence. In Canada and the North Sea it's due to technical problems.No one outage is particularly large. But taken together, they rival the amount of oil that could be lost from Iran over the next few months as sanctions take hold."There are always disruptions, but when the market is this tight, they have an impact," said Daniel Yergin, IHS CERA Chairman and author of "The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World." "It would be better for the economy if these barrels were there."Although a variety of estimates exist, this list was compiled by CNNMoney using data from the International Energy Agency and the U.S. Energy Information Administration:South Sudan: Roughly 350,000 barrels of oil are offline due to a flare-up in violence in the African country.Production stopped in late January after the government in Sudan confiscated oil from a pipeline that runs through its territory, claiming South Sudan has not paid adequate fees for it.South Sudan also claimed Sudan recently bombed some of its oil fields.South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011 after years of civil war over territory rich with oil and water.Christians in the southern part of the country have claimed for years they were mistreated by Muslims in the north.Libya: Oil production in the war-torn country has rebounded faster than expected.During the hostilities, all of the nation's 1.6 million barrels of daily production was halted.Libyan production has since resumed to 1.3 million barrels a day, although 300,000 barrels a day remain shut-in.Syria: About 230,000 barrels are offline in Syria thanks to the fighting in the country.Although a tentative peace plan has been crafted, few expect the regime of President Bashar al-Assad to abide by it. The outlook for the country is for more violence as ethnic factions that have been repressed for years rebel against the ruling party.Yemen: Nearly 140,000 barrels of oil are unavailable from Yemen as the Arabian country battles militants in its south-west region bordering the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.The extremists belong to Ansaar al-Sharia, an Islamic militant network with close links to al Qaeda. The group is trying to establish an Islamic state in the southern part of the country.Earlier this week they ambushed a military outpost, killing 23 soldiers and making off with three tanks and pieces of heavy artillery. In the past they have disrupted the flow of oil through pipelines in the country.The North Sea: Over 100,000 barrels a day are offline due to maintenance, pipeline problems and weather in the notoriously harsh region.Canada: Up to 50,000 barrels a day have been lost in Canada as a result of various equipment problems with machines that turn the oil sands into usable forms of crude oil."It's not just Iran," Paul Horsnell, head of commodities research at Barclays Capital, said at a Senate hearing on gas prices last week. "Over 1 million barrels a day in non-OPEC production is out unexpectedly. That is a significant feature of the current market."-- With reporting from CNN's Nima Elbagir in London Copyright CNN 2012