Saudi Arabia and other major producers are increasingly vocal about the need to reduce exports in order to accelerate the rebalancing of global oil markets (MEES, 6 October). But not all cuts are equal, and Opec’s core Gulf producers are prioritizing key Asian markets at the expense of other areas. Exports to the US initially held up in 2017, but the intense scrutiny afforded to US figures has seen Opec increasingly cut there, to boost oil prices.
Saudi Arabia and Iraq are the two largest Opec suppliers of crude oil to the US. Provisional weekly figures from the US government’s EIA shows crude imports fell to a two-year low of 7.14mn b/d in September due to the impact of hurricanes Irma and Harvey. While volumes from Iraq have rebounded in the first three weeks of October, the same cannot be said of crude coming from Saudi Arabia. Saudi has sent 535,000 b/d of crude to the US so far in October, which would be a 30-year low if sustained until the end of the month. Iraqi volumes have rebounded in October with the US importing just over 1mn b/d in the week ending 20 October. (CONTINUED - 1001 WORDS)
