Saudi crude shipments in June hit highest in 2021

RIYADH/MOSCOW: Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports rose for the second consecutive month in June, their highest level since January 2021, as more countries worldwide showed improvement in the economic activities with vaccines roll out, Arab News reported.

The crude exports went up 5.6 per cent from May to 5.965 million bpd, according to Saudi official data posted on the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) website, while the kingdom’s output rose 383,000 bpd to 8.927 million bpd in June from 8.544 million bpd in May.

The increase in Saudi exports came ahead of an agreement in July by OPEC+ alliance to increase their output starting from August 1 by 400,000 bpd every month till the end of the year to meet the increase in the global demand for crude.

However, oil prices today fell to the lowest since May as more worries are now there regarding global economic recovery with the spread of variants of Covid-19 virus.

In June, the domestic crude refinery throughput was up 0.4 per cent month-on-month to 2.398 million bpd and direct crude burn such as crude oil burned for electricity generation rose almost 30 per cent month-on-month to 586,000 bpd.

The Saudi crude stocks fell 0.636 million barrels to 135.139 million barrels in June from 135.775 million barrels in May.