Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports soared in July 2022 to the highest level since April 2020 amid international pressure to tame elevated oil prices, according to a Bloomberg report.

Seaborne shipments from the Kingdom came to about 7.5 million barrels a day last month, while compared with a revised 6.6 million barrels a day in the previous month of June, it was revealed in the tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Saudi crude exports to China, the main destination, jumped to an average of 1.65 million daily barrels last month. Shipments to India topped one million barrels a day for the first time since April 2020.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies have been under growing pressure to pump more crude, with benchmark oil prices trading around $100 a barrel and contributing to global inflation. The OPEC+ alliance has been gradually boosting production for about a year, as it gradually eases away from output curbs imposed early in the pandemic. The group meets virtually on Aug. 3 to decide on future production policy.

Earlier in July, Bloomberg forecast that Saudi Arabia’s crude exports for the month would be about 7.7 million barrels a day. Observed Saudi crude exports to the US slipped to about 371,000 barrels a day in July, from 417,000 a month earlier, preliminary data showed. Flows to Japan dropped by about 18 percent to 903,000 barrels a day.

The data of the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) last week showed that merchandise exports in May 2022 increased by 83.4 percent to SR144.1 billion while compared to SR78.6 billion in May, 2021.

The authority said in a report that the increase came as a result of an increase in petroleum exports by SR59.7 billion (105.5 percent) in May 2022 to SR116.2 billion while compared to SR56.54 billion in May 2021. The percentage of petroleum exports out of total exports rose to 80.6 percent last May as against 72 percent in May 2021.