Saudi Arabia reported a 20 percent drop in crude oil export during the first half of 2021 as it voluntarily restrained output under OPEC+ production-cut agreement and the output at oil refineries stood at 2.42 million barrels per day, according to media reports. But thanks to the high oil prices, the income from this sector remains stable despite the low production.
Saudi Arabia’s budget deficit also narrowed down sharply during the first six months of this year as the government plans on applying more fiscal discipline and increasing non-oil revenue sources to gain more taxes.
Mazen Al-Sudairi, head of research at Al-Rajhi Capital told the media, “We expect the deficit will slide to SR62 billion for the full year, down from SR141 billion we expected at the beginning of the year. This is supported by oil revenue that benefited from a market recovery.”
Saudi Arabia’s average crude oil export stood at 5.776 million barrels per day, which is 19.8 percent lesser than the 7.2 million barrels per day during the same period in 2020. The average daily crude oil output also fell during the first six months of 2021 to 8.499 million barrels per day from 9.54 million barrels per day in 2020.
On a brighter note, Saudi Arabia saw a 17.9 percent year-on-year increase in average daily crude intake at domestic refineries during the first half of 2021. It registered an increase of 15.2 percent compared to last year. Average daily exports of oil products in the first half of this year also grew to 1.228 million barrels per day,