Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports in July fell to their lowest level in nearly a year, data from the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Thursday.
The country’s oil exports stood at 5.741 million barrels per day (bpd) in July, their lowest level since August 2023. Saudi Arabia is world’s largest exporter of crude.
OPEC+ oil producers earlier this month agreed to delay a planned production increase for October and November and said they could further pause or reverse the hikes if needed.
Saudi’s crude exports in July fell by about 5.1% from June’s exports of 6.047 million bpd.
At the same time, Saudi’s production rose to 8.941 million bpd from 8.830 million bpd.
However, Saudi refineries’ crude throughput fell by 0.026 million bpd to 2.397 million bpd, the data showed, while direct crude burning increased by 211,000 bpd to 769,000 bpd.
Riyadh and other members of OPEC provide monthly export figures to JODI which publishes them on its website.
Saudi cut its October price for flagship Arab light crude to Asia to the lowest level in nearly three years on concerns of weak demand in the region.
This month, both the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) lowered their 2024 oil demand growth forecasts.
Concerns about Chinese demand have weighed on the outlook. China’s oil refinery output in August fell 6.2% from a year earlier, official data showed, declining for the fifth month.
(Reporting by Rahul Paswan in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely)