LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC oil supply fell in April to its lowest this year as a strike cut Nigerian output and top OPEC exporters Saudi Arabia and Iran trimmed production, a Reuters survey showed Thursday.

Output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries slipped to 31.64 million barrels per day in April from 32.05m b/d in March, according to the survey of oil firms, OPEC officials and analysts.
The drop came during a month in which oil prices soared, hitting a record high of $119.93 a barrel on Monday. Analysts said the supply decline would probably be temporary, which would come as a relief to consumer countries worried by high prices. “It does not signal the start of any big cutting trend. Prices are just too good,” said Mike Wittner of Societe Generale. “Nigeria will bounce back and for the Saudis I think it is minor and seasonal.”
Nigeria had the largest drop in supply last month as output was hit by sabotage on a Royal Dutch Shell pipeline and a strike at ExxonMobil Corp’s local unit. Production averaged 1.81m b/d during the month, taking supply below that of Angola, which may unseat Nigeria as Africa’s top oil exporter unless the outages are resolved soon.
Saudi Arabia and Iran, OPEC’s top two exporters, both lowered output in April slightly in response to lower demand from customers for their oil, officials said. Saudi output fell by 100,000 b/d and Iranian supply eased by 50,000 b/d, the survey found.
World oil demand usually slips in the second quarter as consumers in the northern hemisphere use less heating fuel and refineries carry out maintenance work. “The Saudi trimming is not unexpected,” Wittner said. “That would have to do with the fact that some of their customers are in turnaround.”
While in the long-term Kazakhstan, Brazil and Canada could boost output, “it would hardly compensate for a decline” in British and Norwegian fields in the North Sea, Perrin said. And in the United States, he added, “the development of off-shore fields in the Gulf of Mexico will not be enough to compensate for the decline of older facilities.”