Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports were the lowest in five months despite near-record high output, Reuters reports.
The Kingdom’s May shipments fell to 6.935mn barrels per day (bpd) on average, down from 7.737mn bpd in April, official data showed on Sunday.
Domestic refineries, including its newly open 400,000-barrels per day refinery in Yanbu, processed 2.423mn bpd in May, up 9% from 2.224mn bpd a month earlier, accoridng to figures supplied by Riyadh to the Joint Organisation Data Initiative (JODI).
The news comes as Saudi is stepping up plans to turn into a global refining power and become the world’s largest supplier of refined products.Â
The OPEC producer is offering customers millions of barrels of diesel from new refineries, potentially triggering a price war with Asian competitors as its exports feed into a glut, Reuters reported.
Saudi Arabia remains the world’s largest exporter of crude. Its production for May stood at 10.333mn bpd, slightly above the April figure of 10.308mn bpd.
