Saudi oil keeps flooding market with output pact yet to begin
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf suppliers may have agreed to cut oil production again starting next month, but by all indications the taps are set to remain wide open until then — swelling stockpiles for at least a few more weeks.
The kingdom’s crude exports so far in April stand at 9.3 million barrels a day, according to tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with 6.8 million barrels a day through the first two weeks of March. What’s more, there are at least 10 supertankers with the capacity to haul a combined 20 million barrels of oil waiting to load at the Saudi port of Ras Tanura in the coming days.
State-owned oil company Saudi Aramco pledged to boost output to 12.3 million barrels a day in April as it slashed prices in a battle for market share, following the collapse of the three-year old OPEC+ pact in March. As the coronavirus spread across the globe, governments imposed restrictions on movement and demand declined further, as did prices.
