Saudi Arabia and Iraq Cut Oil Exports in June, JODI Figures Show

2013-08-19

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, shipped less crude in June and exports also slid in fellow OPEC members Iraq, Kuwait and Nigeria, according to official data.

The kingdom delivered 7.32 million barrels a day, down from 7.79 million in May, according to figures the governments filed with the Joint Organizations Data Initiative. Daily Saudi production fell by 20,000 barrels in June to 9.64 million.

Exports from Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer, slumped to 2.33 million barrels a day from 2.48 million in May, the data showed. Kuwaiti crude shipments dropped to 2.09 million barrels a day in June from 2.23 million in the prior month.

“Exports were low from OPEC countries, as demand was low in June, but production was high in many of them since local demand for summer is pushing consumption up,” Kamel al-Harami, an independent oil analyst based in Kuwait, said today by phone. “Still, there are countries like Nigeria, Iran and Libya who are cutting on exports due to their own problems.”

Nigeria and Angola, the West African producers in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, lowered their exports of light crude in June by 0.7 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively, according to JODI. Algeria, another African producer of light crude, reported an increase of 33 percent in its June shipments to 704,000 barrels a day from 529,000 in May, the data showed.

JODI is supervised by the Riyadh-based International Energy Forum and uses statistics supplied by national governments to compile data on production, imports and exports for oil producers and consumers. The data include crude and condensates and exclude natural-gas liquids.

Libya, Iran, Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates failed to submit export data for June. The other members of OPEC, which accounts for about 40 percent of daily global crude production, are Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iraq, Kuwait, Nigeria, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Source from : Bloomberg

HEADLINES