The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
Bloomberg
Saudi Arabia rejected concerns that it’s planning to oversupply global oil markets and said it will actually trim crude exports next month.
The kingdom bolstered production by the most in three years last month, pumping almost 10.5 million barrels a day. Yet it signalled that it won’t go any further for now, saying exports this month will be “roughly equal†to June, and will drop by 100,000 barrels a day in August.
“Saudi Arabia only exports barrels that are earmarked to match confirmed lifting requests by end users, and does not try to push oil into the market beyond its customers’ needs,†the Energy Ministry said in a statement, citing Saudi Arabia’s liaison to OPEC, Adeeb Al-Aama. Oil prices reversed losses, rising briefly above $70 a barrel in New York.
The world’s largest oil exporter is fulfilling a pledge made in late June that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia would raise output by about 1 million barrels a day. The result has been a retreat of about 6 percent in oil prices this month, helped by escalating trade tensions between the US and China and signs that supply disruptions in countries including Libya might not be as bad as initially feared.
Even with higher Saudi output, international markets are “well-balanced†this quarter, according to Al-Aama. Stockpiles are set to decline in the second half of the year because of robust demand and seasonal increases in consumption, he said.
Holding production steady from June to July would mean shipping less crude than Saudi Arabia indicated after the OPEC deal.