Saudi’s July oil exports reach record as local use eases

Bloomberg

Saudi Arabia’s oil exports climbed in July to a record level for that month, as the kingdom curbed the amount of crude it burns to generate energy domestically, according to the Joint Oil Data Initiative.
The world’s biggest oil producer raised shipments by 166,000 barrels a day to 7.622 million a day in July compared with the previous month, according to Riyadh-based JODI, whose records began in 2002. It reduced the amount of crude directly used for power generation by 7,000 barrels a day to 697,000 a day, the lowest for the time of year since 2010.
Saudi Arabia has been boosting natural gas
output to limit the direct burning of crude, which peaks in the summer months with surging use of air conditioning. The ramp-up of output from the Wasit natural gas plant should decrease the direct use of crude by 100,000 barrels a day this year, the
International Energy Agency predicted in July. The July figure is 151,000 barrels a day lower than a year earlier, JODI data show.