Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, saw its oil sales decline to a five-month low in April, according to data tracked by the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI), released on Monday.
The kingdom’s crude exports dropped by 207,000 barrels per day (bpd) from March, to 7.32 million bpd, according to JODI Oil database, which compiles self-reported statistics from nearly 50 nations.
The drop came a month before the first of the voluntary cuts agreed between Riyadh and several large OPEC+ producers, including Russia, came into effect in May.
The daily cuts of around 1.66 million barrels until the end of 2023 came on top of previous agreements, making the total OPEC+ output reduction 3.66 million barrels daily, or 3.7% of global oil demand.
According to the latest deal, Saudi Arabia pledged to slash oil production by 500,000 bpd. Additionally, the alliance’s top producer announced a unilateral cut of one million bpd for July, which could be extended beyond next month.
JODI’s data also showed that Saudi Arabia produced some 10.46 million bpd in April, marginally down by 3,000 bpd compared to the previous month.
Closing stocks of Saudi crude oil and oil products reportedly increased by 372,000 barrels to 235.5 million barrels in April. Product inventories declined by 1.6 million barrels while crude inventories surged by 1.98 million barrels, the JODI data showed. Direct burn of crude in Saudi Arabia reportedly increased by 35,000 bpd to 389,000 bpd in April.
At the same time, the kingdom’s diesel imports grew by 71,000 bpd month-on-month, reaching the highest level since November 2018. Saudi Arabia has been ramping up imports of diesel from Russia, a fellow OPEC+ producer, purchasing the fuels that are banned in the EU due to the Ukraine-related sanctions.
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