In July, Saudi Arabia saw its highest crude oil stocks draw in eight months at 5.51 million barrels, after the Kingdom unexpectedly reduced its production compared to June while it kept exports stable, S&P Global Platts reported on Tuesday, citing data by the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI).
The Saudi crude oil inventories have been dropping for three years, and have declined by 11.4 percent since May 2017, according to JODI data, as carried by Platts. In July, Saudi Arabia’s crude inventories stood at 229.41 million barrels.
According to data by the JODI database, which collects self-reported oil figures from 114 countries, Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports in July dropped by 126,000 bpd month on month, to 7.12 million bpd.
Saudi oil production was 10.29 million bpd in July, as self-reported by Saudi Arabia to both JODI and OPEC.
Refinery runs were 2.77 million bpd, a slight drop from 2.79 million bpd in the previous month, while direct use of crude oil for power generation in July went up to 580,000 bpd, compared to 468,000 bpd in June, according to the JODI figures as reported by Platts.
After the drop in the Saudi oil production in July—which baffled the market and analysts—Saudi Arabia raised its production in August.
Saudi Arabia’s oil production inched up 38,000 bpd from July to 10.401 million bpd in August, according to OPEC’s secondary sources.
Saudi Arabia self-reported to OPEC that its production in August increased by 124,000 bpd from the July self-reported figure of 10.29 million bpd, to 10.412 million bpd in August.
The market will be expecting indications and signs for Saudi oil production and policies this month, with this weekend’s Algiers meeting of an OPEC and non-OPEC monitoring panel to review the state of the oil market, and with reports that Saudi Arabia may be okay letting Brent Crude prices go above $80 a barrel.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
