Saudi August Oil Output Falls From Record High

Saudi Arabia's crude oil exports in August fell to 7.305 million barrels per day from 7.622 million bpd in July as the world's largest oil exporter pumped less, the kingdom has told an influential data base.

Monthly export figures are provided by Riyadh and other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to the Joint Organizations Data Initiative, which published them on its website on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

After the kingdom pumped a record high 10.673 million bpd in July due to summer demand and requests from customers, its August output dropped to 10.630 million bpd.

Crude oil used to generate power rose 42,000 barrels per day in August to 739,000 barrels per day.

Saudi Arabia's oil inventories peaked last October at a record high 329.430 million barrels but have declined to meet domestic demand without affecting exports.

Its domestic crude inventories totaled 281.01 million barrels, down from 281.463 million barrels in July, data provided by JODI showed. Domestic refineries processed 2.600 million bpd of crude in August, down from 2.611 million in July. Exports of refined oil products in August inched higher to 1.370 million bpd from 1.367 million bpd in July. State oil firm Saudi Aramco has stakes in more than 5 million bpd of refining capacity at home and abroad, placing it among the global leaders in making oil products.

OPEC on Sept. 28 agreed to reduce output to a range of 32.50 million barrels per day to 33.0 million bpd, its first output cut since the 2008 financial crisis.

Saudi Arabia, which is eying a potential deal with global crude producers to limit output, is said to have lifted sales to the world’s second biggest oil consumer after cutting the pricing for its supply. The Middle East nation also sold 1.2 million to 1.3 million barrels a day to China last month, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified because the information is confidential.

That is about 4.91 million to 5.32 million metric tons for all of September, compared with the 4.36 million that government data shows was purchased from Saudi Arabia in August.