The world’s largest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, records high levels of crude, its oil exports rose in July to 7.622 million barrels per day from 7.456 million bpd in June, keeping the global market well supplied, reported Reuters.
Saudi Arabia has been maintaining high output levels since mid-2014 despite a global supply glut, in line with a strategy of defending market share against rival producers.
Saudi Arabia’s oil inventories peaked last October at a record high 329.430 million barrels but have declined since as the country has drawn down its stockpile to meet domestic demand without impacting its exports.
As it expands oil product exports, the kingdom has been feeding more crude to domestic refineries.
Several members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have called for an output freeze to rein in an oil glut that triggered a price collapse in the last two years, hitting the revenues of major producers.
However, USA has already reduced its crude oil production due to increasing production cost and low international oil market price. The output in the US dropped by 460,000 barrels per day since May while Saudi Arabia increased its production significantly by 400,000 barrels at about the same time and the international market price of crude oil fell down to only $30.00 per barrel last January due to higher production and low export price strategy of Saudi Arabia, signaled The Financial Express.
Saudi Arabian crude supply grew to 10.65 million barrels per day in July, before coming down to 10.60 million in August. Production has averaged 10.36 million barrels a day in the period from January to August, 2016, almost 200,000 barrels a day higher than the corresponding period in 2015.
