The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia pumped 8.974 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) in September, media reports said. This means the Kingdom held production steady despite the global crisis as it pumped 8.988 million barrels a day in August.
It is reported that the Kingdom exported 6.1 million bpd during the same period, up from 6.0 million barrels a day it exported in August.
Earlier this year, OPEC and its partners decided to cut production to deal with the depleting oil prices and decreasing demand due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It is also reported that the Saudi finance ministry expects oil prices to stay around $50 a barrel for at least the next three years.
In this regard, Farouk Soussa, an analyst at Goldman told the media, “Using our own estimates for the breakdown of government revenues, we calculate that the numbers presented in the budget statement are based on an average oil price of around $50 a barrel between 2020 and 2023.”
Crude oil prices further fell by 6 percent last week to $39.27 a barrel due to the Covid-19 crisis. These are worrying signs for countries such as Saudi Arabia as their economy primarily depends on oil. However, the Kingdom has taken significant steps over a period of time to diversify its economy and reduce its dependency on oil.
Oil exported by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was down by 62 percent during the second quarter of this year, according to the Saudi General Authority for Statistics.
In an official statement, the state-owned body said that the Saudi oil exports amounted to $19.9 billion during the second quarter of 2020.