Rinat Gainullin and Shatha Almasoudi

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 economic activities with vaccines roll out.

Crude exports went up by 5.6 percent from May to 5.965 million bpd, according to Saudi official data posted on Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) website, while the Kingdom’s output rose by 383,000 bpd to 8.927 million bpd in June from 8.544 million b/d 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 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 spread of variants of Covid19 virus.

In June domestic crude refinery throughput was up 0.4 percent month-on-month to 2.398 million b/d and direct crude burn such as crude oil burned for electricity generation rose by almost 30% month-on-month to 586,000 b/d.

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