ARAMCO PLANS ‘DEEPEST OIL SUPPLY CUTS’
Oil giant to trim allocations to customers by 560,000 barrels a day next month
RIYADH
“Saudi Arabia is once again demonstrating extraordinary leadership in its commitment to re-balancing the market, as we approach the upcoming key meeting of November 30 in Vienna, by restraining not only the top-line of production volume, but even more importantly the bottom line of exports, which are what ultimately shape global inventories and market balances,” said the ministry.
“The kingdom expects all other participants in the effort to follow suit and to maintain the high levels of overall conformity achieved in August going forward.”
Saudi Arabia, the world’s top crude exporter, is leading Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and other producers, including Russia, in paring output under a deal that helped propel oil into a bull market last month.
Lower compliance with the curbs promised by some nations combined with rising production in Opec members Libya and Nigeria — both exempt from reducing output due to their internal strife — have added pressure on Saudi Arabia to make deeper cuts of its own.
The decrease in allocations for next month “constitutes a full 290,000 barrels a day reduction over and above the 486,000 barrels a day” that Saudi Arabia pledged to cut as part of its commitment to the global output accord, the ministry added.
This added up “to a massive total of almost 800,000 barrels a day” in cuts, it said.
Saudi Arabia scaled back exports last month to less than 6.7 million barrels a day, “despite high customer demand and the partial reduction of domestic summer crude burning requirements”, said the ministry. Bloomberg