Saudi Arabia’s crude supply fell 2.3 million barrels per day on the month to 6 million bpd in August, the lowest level in more than three decades, the International Energy Agency said on Friday, citing attacks on Saudi energy facilities.
The drop follows the targeting by groups linked to Yemen’s Houthis of ships transiting the Bab el-Mandeb, Saudi Arabia’s Jazan refinery and shipping near Yanbu, the IEA said in a report, and Iran-backed militias in Iraq using drones to hit Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq oil processing site.
The IEA’s assessment of Saudi supply in August is lower than that of Saudi Arabia itself, which informed the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that it supplied 7.122 million bpd last month. Saudi Arabia also told OPEC it produced 6.238 million bpd in August, similar to the IEA’s supply figure.
Supply is an oil industry term aimed at providing a clearer picture of how much oil is reaching the market, as it refers to the sum of a country’s oil exports including loadings from storage, plus domestic use in refineries and power plants.
The IEA in its monthly oil market report revised its forecast for Saudi Arabia’s crude supply in 2026 down by 885,000 bpd to 7.6 million bpd, citing a delayed recovery for Middle East Gulf production.
Saudi crude loadings, including from the Red Sea and assessed so-called dark shipping transits, declined by 1.1 million bpd on the month to 3.5 million bpd, while inventories declined by 400,000 bpd, the IEA said.
(Reporting by Enes Tunagur in London. Editing by Alex Lawler and Mark Potter)