RIYADH: Saudi Arabia reduced crude oil exports in April as the world’s biggest producer used record supplies domestically for a burgeoning refining industry.
Shipments fell to 7.74 million barrels a day from 7.9 million in March, the Riyadh-based Joint Organisations Data Initiative said on its website. The nation processed 2.22 million barrels a day in domestic refineries in April, the most since at least January 2002 when JODI started collecting statistics from governments.
Saudi Arabia began operating a 400,000 barrel-a-day refinery at Yanbu on the Red Sea last year. Another plant with the same capacity is scheduled to begin operation in 2017 at Jazan in the country’s southwest. The kingdom’s oil-product exports rose 44 percent last year following the startup of a refinery in the Gulf port of Jubail, according to JODI data.
“Saudi needs more crude to stay at home,” Kamel al-Harami, an independent oil analyst in Kuwait, said by phone from Kuwait City on Thursday. “The Saudis want to put a cap on exports during summer and they are satisfied with anything around 7.7 million to 7.9 million barrels a day as they want to keep their market share.”
Saudi Arabia’s output rose to 10.31 million barrels a day in April from 10.29 million in March, according to JODI. The nation was the world’s largest producer for a second month in a row, displacing Russia which had been first in February.
Brent for August settlement traded at $63.81 a barrel, down 6 cents, on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange at 2:58 p.m. local time Thursday.
