Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports in April rose to 6.166 million barrels per day (bpd) from 5.754 million bpd in March, official data showed on Monday.

The world’s largest oil exporter’s crude output for April was at 9.005 million bpd, up from 8.957 million bpd in March.

Saudi refineries’ crude throughput was at 2.704 million bpd in April, down 0.24 million bpd from March’s 2.944 million bpd, the data showed.

Direct crude burning decreased by 6,000 bpd to 377,000 bpd in April.

Saudi Arabia and other members of OPEC provide monthly export figures to JODI, which publishes them on its website.

In late May, OPEC+, the world’s largest group of oil producers, stuck to its guns with another big increase of 411,000 barrels per day for July.

Since April, the OPEC+ eight have now made or announced increases totalling 1.37 million bpd, or 62% of the 2.2 million bpd they aim to add back to the market. OPEC + eight refers to a group of eight OPEC+ countries (Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, UAE, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman).

The group could bring forward its output hikes by around a year from the initial plan, Igor Sechin, head of Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft, said on Saturday.

The conflict between Israel and Iran has sharply escalated after the U.S. attacked an Iranian nuclear site further raising tensions across the region.

There are mounting fears that an Iranian retaliation may include a closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global crude supply flows.
Source: Reuters