Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports exceeded 6 million barrels per day (bpd) in July, the highest volume in six months, as the OPEC + alliance continued to ease its supply cuts.
The world’s largest oil exporter saw crude exports hit 6.327 million barrels per day in July, up about 360,000 from June, data from the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Thursday.
July crude export levels were the highest since January this year, when the Kingdom’s exports averaged 6.582 million barrels per day, according to JODI, which compiles the countries’ self-reported data. January was also the last time the Saudis exported more than 6 million barrels a day, before last July.
In June, Saudi crude oil exports averaged 5.965 million barrels per day, according to data from JODI last month, as the world’s largest exporter of oil, and the entire OPEC + group continued to grow. ” ease the cuts in a context of recovery in global demand.
In July, total Saudi oil exports, including crude oil and total petroleum products, increased month-over-month by 327,000 bpd to 7.65 million bpd, according to JODI.
In January 2021, the Saudis surprised the market with the decision to unilaterally cut 1 million bpd, as the OPEC + group eased the cuts only slightly due to concessions to Russia and Kazakhstan.
At the next OPEC + meeting in early March, Saudi Arabia surprised the market again, saying it would maintain the additional cut in April instead of just February and March as originally planned. OPEC + decided not to ease the cuts in April, except for a combined increase of 150,000 bpd for Russia and Kazakhstan, as the group sought to tighten the market and keep its powder dry until he sees hard evidence of a rebound in global oil demand.
Starting in August, OPEC + plans to add 400,000 b / d of supply each month until the remaining 5.8 million b / d is restored.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for OilUSD
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