Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports rose to a three-month high in May, the latest data by the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Monday, as the Kingdom leads the OPEC+ production increases this summer.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s top crude oil exporter, saw its shipments rise by 25,000 barrels per day (bpd) from April to 6.19 million in May, according to the JODI data which compiles self-reported figures from the individual countries.
The export levels in May reached the highest since February this year, when the shipments exceeded 6.5 million bpd, the data showed.
Meanwhile, Saudi crude oil production jumped by 179,000 bpd to reach a 23-month high in May, as the Kingdom and its OPEC+ allies started easing their production cuts in April this year.
Saudi Arabia’s domestic refinery intake inched by 17,000 bpd in May from the previous month, but total product demand surged by 478,000 bpd to the highest level in 9 months. The demand in May was above the five-year average range, according to the data in JODI.
Since April, Saudi Arabia has been consistently increasing its crude oil production, as it leads the OPEC+ group’s current policy to unwind 2.2 million bpd in total oil production cuts.
Earlier this month, OPEC+ caught the market by surprise by announcing a larger-than-expected output hike of 548,000 bpd for August.
Another production boost of 550,000 bpd for September is expected, and this would allow OPEC+ to unwind all the 2.2 million bpd cuts.
OPEC+ producers still have 1.6 million bpd in other production cuts spread among the group members and expiring at the end of 2026.
OPEC has already announced individual members’ production in June, which showed a large gap in estimated and self-reported Saudi oil production.
The Saudi output of 9.356 million bpd, per OPEC’s numbers based on secondary sources tracking production and supply, was in perfect alignment with the Saudi quota.
But in the table with self-reported figures, OPEC put an asterisk – in a very unusual move – next to the Saudi production number of 9.360 million bpd, explaining below that “Saudi Arabia’s supply to the market in June was 9,360 tb/d and production was 9,752 tb/d.”
By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com
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