Saudi Arabia raised its oil exports in September by 113,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 7.111 million bpd from 6.998 million bpd in the previous month, official data showed on Wednesday.
The Opec heavyweight pumped 10.226 million bpd in September, slightly lower than August’s 10.265 million but it still maintained high output in line with its strategy of defending market share.
Saudi Arabia burns higher crude volumes to generate power for air conditioning during the hot summer months. It has also been feeding more crude to domestic refineries as it expands oil product exports.
But despite increased refining in September, product exports fell.
Domestic refineries processed 2.501 million bpd of crude, higher than the August level of 2.214 million bpd. Exports of refined oil products in September dropped to 1.190 million bpd, from 1.347 million bpd in August.
In September, when the weather starts to cool in some parts of the kingdom, crude oil directly burnt to generate power dropped from the month before to 744,000 bpd, the Jodi data showed.
Monthly export figures are provided by Riyadh and other members of the Opec to the Joint Organisations Data Initiative, which publishes them on its website.
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