Saudi Arabia has pumped almost 11mn barrels of crude oil per day (bpd), industry executives told Bloomberg. The country’s production hit record levels between 10.8 mbpd and 10.9 mbpd due to increased demand from clients who were anticipating disruption in supply from Iran following US sanctions on the country.
Purchase requests are typically made around one month in advance, so requests for November came through in early October, when fear and speculation surrounding potential supply cuts shook the market and caused Brent crude to rocket up to $86 per barrel.
This comes ahead of OPEC’s December 6 meeting in Vienna, where it will set its strategy for 2019. Saudi Arabia is expected to cut ouput by 500,000 bpd in December, Reuters reported, because of seasonal lower demand.
Fear of supply shortages has turned into fear of oversupply, and OPEC analysis found that a cut of 1 mbpd from October’s production levels would be necessary to keep the market balanced. Surprise waivers issued by the US to eight importers of Iranian oil softened the supply cut, and prices have moved downwards as supplies have grown.
“The consensus is that we need to do whatever it takes to balance the market. If that means trimming supplies by a million (bpd), we will,” Al Falih said in early November.
