In a statement to Tadawul, Saudi Aramco annouced that it will provide its customers with 12.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude in April 2020.
This is a 300,000 bpd increase from the company’s maximum sustained capacity of 12 mbpd. It is not clear if Saudi Aramco plans to sustain this level of production in the longer term, but wrote in its statement that it “agreed with its customers to provide them with such volumes starting 1 April 2020.”
Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of OPEC, has spearheaded production cuts for years, and earlier in March proposed further cuts of 1.5 million barrels per day in response to dwindling demand due to the coronavirus outbreak. Russia refused the deal, and Saudi Arabia slashed its own crude prices and removed limits on its output in response.
Aramco further noted that this would “have a positive, long-term financial effect.”
