Saudi Crude Oil Exports Rise To Almost 6.9m bpd In October

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia shipped more crude oil in October than a month earlier while volumes used by domestic refineries remained high allowing more oil products exports, official data showed on Thursday.

The OPEC member exported 6.897 million barrels per day of crude in October, up from 6.722 million in September, data published by the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) showed.

Production was slightly lower in October at 9.69 million bpd from 9.704 million, the data showed.

An industry source told Reuters last week that crude supplies from the kingdom for both exports and the domestic market inched higher to 9.420 million bpd in November, up 40,000 bpd from October.

JODI has not yet made export data available for November.

Oil products exports rose to 909,000 bpd in October from 787,000 bpd in September, the data showed.

Domestic refiners processed 2.061 million bpd of crude in October, almost flat from 2.035 million bpd in September, the JODI data showed.

Saudi oil use for power generation fell to 512,000 bpd in October from 648,000 bpd in September as weather cooled.

Oil markets monitor changes in output from Saudi Arabia, which has enough spare capacity to significantly alter production according to demand.

Its exports in September edged up by around 59,000 bpd while volumes used by domestic refineries remained high.