Saudi May crude exports plunge to lowest in nearly a decade

Saudi Arabia’s crude exports fell to 6.02 million barrels per day (bpd) in May, the lowest level since October 2010, official data showed on Thursday.

Crude exports from the world’s largest oil exporter, dropped 41.2% from 10.237 million bpd in April, according to data from the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI).

Benchmark Brent crude futures LCOc1 prices have dived more than 34% this year as the coronavirus crisis crushed fuel demand. O/R

In an effort to offset the slump in demand, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, began cutting output in May by a record 9.7 million barrels per day, equating to 10% of global supply.

OPEC and allies such as Russia agreed on Wednesday to ease record supply curbs from August, with demand recovering gradually as countries ease lockdowns. (Full Story)

Total oil shipped from Saudi Arabia, including crude and oil products, fell to 7.48 million bpd from 11.34 million bpd in April.

The kingdom’s crude production dropped nearly 30% month on month to 8.49 million bpd in May, its lowest since December 2010.

Crude stocks rose by 4.06 million barrels to 147.56 million barrels, the official figures showed. (Full Story)

Saudi’s domestic crude refinery throughput rose by 0.09 million bpd to 1.93 million bpd while direct crude burn rose 52,000 bpd to 407,000 bpd.

Having hit the lowest level since August 2006 in April, Saudi total oil products demand in May rose by 114,000 bpd to 1.83 million bpd, data on the JODI website showed.

Monthly export figures are provided by Riyadh and other members of OPEC to the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI), which publishes them on its website.

(Reporting by K. Sathya Narayanan, Nakul Iyer and Swati Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by David Goodman and Elaine Hardcastle)