Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports in January rose to 6.996 million barrels per day (bpd), the highest level since April 2020, official data showed on Friday.

Crude oil exports in January rose 0.9% from the 6.937 million bpd reported for December, data showed.

The world’s largest oil exporter’s crude output rose by 0.123 million bpd month on month to 10.145 million bpd in January, also the highest since April 2020.

Monthly export figures are provided by Riyadh and other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI), which published them on its website.

Saudi Arabia, along with OPEC, is trying to steadily ramp up output every month as global oil demand rises on the back of a recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Saudi Arabia’s domestic crude refinery throughput rose 0.083 million bpd to 2.777 million bpd in January while direct crude burn rose 84,000 bpd to 402,000 bpd.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Brijesh Patel in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely, Kirsten Donovan)