Saudi Arabia will hold back oil exports in March as the kingdom targets oil inventory levels and attempts to reduce concerns about a fresh bout of oil price fragility, according to Reuters.
Saudi Arabia will maintain its crude exports below 7mn barrels per day (bpd) in March, despite a maintenance shutdown at the 400,000 bpd Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery, the Saudi Ministry of Energy has said.
“Saudi Arabia remains focused on working down excess oil inventories,” a ministry spokesman said in a statement cited by Reuters.
“Market volatility is a common concern for producers and consumers, and the kingdom is committed to mitigating this volatility and moderating its negative impacts by responsibly meeting its pledges.”
OPEC and non-member producers such as Russia are scaling back their production to reinforce oil prices. The arrangement began a year ago and has been extended until the end of this year.
Despite a recent retreat in the price of crude, after touching three year highs last month, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy Khalid Al Falih remains positive, saying yesterday he was sure the continued scale back in production would keep the market stable.
“I am confident that our high degree of cooperation and coordination will continue and bring the desired results,” Falih told an industry conference.
