Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports fell by 278,000 barrels per day (bpd) in August, despite historically high wellhead production, official data showed on Sunday.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) heavyweight shipped 6.998mn bpd in August, down from 7.276mn bpd in July, figures published by the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) showed.
The world’s biggest crude oil exporter trimmed its production by around 100,000 bpd in August pumping 10.265mn bpd, but still maintained high output levels in line with a strategy of defending market share.
Domestic refineries processed the same volumes in August at 2.214mn, while crude oil directly burnt to generate power was also unchanged in August from the month before at 848,000 bpd, the JODI data showed.
However, the report also says that the Kingdom shipped record high volumes of refined oil products.
Exports of refined oil products in August rose to 1.347mn bpd from 1.075mn bpd a month earlier, a record high since at least 2002 when the JODI data started.
Monthly export figures are provided by Riyadh and other OPEC members to JODI, which published them on its website.
